i|S«iS'^y?? ^:;:^ 



THE 



Records of Oxford, Mass 



INCLUDING 



) 



CHAPTERS OF NIPMUCK, HUGUENOT AND ENG- 

I.ISH HISTORY FROM THE EARLIEST 

DATE, 1630. 



Manners and Fashions of the Time. 



BY 
Mary de Witt Freeland. 




ALBANY, N. Y. 

JOEL MUNSELL'S sons, PUBLISHERS, 

io.jj. 



§ 2 c O f 
' Of 



CHAPTER I. 

Chapters of "Nipmuck History." 

Ladj Mary Armine [Armjne] of England, by her benefac- 
tions to the natives of the xs'ipinuck country for their educa- 
tion and chribtianization, becaine so interested in her life as to 
become a part of their history, as she was their patroness. 

From an old record : 

" Lady Armyne gave large yearly contributions to promote 
the carrying on of the work begnn in New England, for the 
conversion of the poor Indians in those parts. And this siie 
continued even to her dying day. And of the success of that 
undertaking she had an annual Account to her rejoicing." 

Lady Armyne gave twenty pounds per annum to Rev. John 
Eliot for his Indian schools in the Nipmuck country at Natick 
and Hassaraanessit, now Grafton. 

Lady Armyne, though so devoted in her charities to the 
heathen in the "far off Nipmuck country," was not unmind- 
ful of doing good at her own home in Lincolnshire, England. 
"No one followed more closely in the footsteps of her Divine 
Master, for like Him she went about doing good, for she took 
the height of her religion to consist in the height of love to 
God and man, and in close obedience to Christ and reliance on 
His Mediation." 

In 16G2, when so many clergymen in England were ejected 
from their livings. Lady Armyne, though devotedly attached 
to the Church of England, came to Dr. Edmund Calamy of 
London, and brought five hundred pounds to be given to those 
dissenting clergymen and their families. 



2 The Records of Oxford. 

During her last illness, hearing of the E.ev. Richard Baxter's 
troubles as a dissenter from the Church of England, though 
the Lord Chancellor had proffered to him a Bishopric, Lady 
Mary sent her servant to him to hear of his case, before whose 
return to her, she had died.* 

The quaint historian narrates of the life and time of Lady 
Armyne : 

" This Honorable and Excellent Lady, was a branch of one 
of the most Antient, Noble, and Illustrious Families in Eng- 
land, whether we look to Descent, Degree, or Actings. 

" The Family of the Talbots, for a long Tract of time, Earls 
of Shrewsbury, whose Heroick performances both in Civil and 
Millitary Affairs, done by them in their Native Country, are 
upon Record to the perpetuating of their Names and Renown. 
But especially their Conquests and Tryumphs in France were so 
signal, that the Memory of them continues until this day, and 



* The life of Lady Armyne is found iu an ancient book, with the 
title, " The Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons in this Later Age, Divines, 
Nobility and Gentry of both Sexes, by Samuel Clark, London (Printed 
for Thomas Simmons at the Princes Arms, Ludgate Street) 1682-3." 

The introductory to the above volume closes with these words : 

"It's a great work to learn to die safely and comfortably; even the 
work of all our lives ; my turn is near, and this preparation is my daily 
Study ; But it's the Communication of life, light and love, from Heaven, 
that must make all effectual and draw up our Hearts and make us ready, 
For which I daily wait on God. At the brink of the Grave and the 
door of Eternity. Jan. 16, 1682-3. "Richard Baxter." 

Rev. Richard Baxter writes : 

" I have not read over this Book being desired suddenly to write this 
Preface, and, therefore, undertake not the Justification of what I have 
not read. But I know so many of the Persons and Histories myself as 
makes me not doubt the Historical truth. Judge Hales and the Coun- 
tess of Warwick (my great Friends) need no testimony of mine. I 
have desired the Book-seller to reprint the life of the Countess of Suffolk 
the daughter to the Earl of Holland, written by Bishop Rainbow, as an 
excellent pattern to Ladies.'' 



Nipimick History. -s 

withal so dreadful, that Mothers quieted tlieir crying Children 
by telling them that Talbot came." * 

* Talbot, Earl of Slirewsbury with Heniy V, left England and landed 
in France with an army of 6,000 men-at-arms and 24,000 foot, chiefly 
archers. After a furious battle the English took possession of Harfleur, 
August 14, 1415. Henry expelled the French inhabitants in order to 
people it with English. 

Henry soon after finished his campaign by the victory of Agiucourt 
Oct. 25, 1415, which the English said, "shed everlasting glory on his 
head." No battle was ever fought more fatal to France; the killed are 
said to have amounted to 10,000 and 14,000 prisoners. 

Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, was in command at both of these battles, 
being styled "the greatest captain of his age." 

The Earl of Shrewsbury was a great favorite at the court of Henry 
VI. He presented Queen Marguerite of Anjou, the last of the proven- 
9al queens, a volume of sketches executed by himself. On the title 
page Henry VI and Marguerite are represented as seated upon a low 
divan, ladies in attendence are jjictured in the background. Talbot 
kneels before the Queen ])resenting his volume. Henry and Marguerite 
are^ again represented in an allegorical picture. Marguerite and the 
ladies of her court as the Virtues. Marguerite as Faith and King 
Henry as Honor. As an embellishment daisies are painted in clusters, 
for every lady had her emblem flower, the fashion of the time, and 
the queen's cipher is surrounded by the garter and its motto. 

On the King's marriage all the knights and nobles wore Marguerite's 
emblem flower, the daisy, in their caps, when they came on horse-back in 
a body to receive her as her escort into London. This must have 
been a very flattering compliment, and the King carried it still farther 
by having "Marguerites " engraved on his silver. In the reign of Henry 
VI, during the "Wars of the Roses," Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who 
was most loyal to the house of Lancaster, was killed in battle and was 
mourned by all classes of people. 



4 The Records of Oxford. 

AN EPITAPH 
' ' Upon the much-lamented Death of the Truly Honoukable, very 

AGED, AND SINGULARLY PIOUS LaDY, 

The Lady Mary Arminb, 
Who Dyed Anno Christi 1675." 
' ' Hail Mary full of Grace, 'bove women blest ; 
A Name more rich in Saints than all the rest; 
An Army of them fam'd in sacred Story : 
All good, none bad, an unparallel'd Glory! 
The blessed Virgin well may lead the Van ; 
Next follows Mary the Bethanian ; 
Next Mary, Wife of Cleophas ; Another 
Mary was of James and Joses Mother 
How much is spoke of Mary Magdalen ? 
Of Mai-y, John Mark's Mother, we read agen. 
At Rome a Mary commended by St. Paul; 
All Saints; yet not to pray unto at all.'' 

" A Mary was the Mother of our Lord. 
A Mary 'twas laid up in heart his word. 
A Mary 'twas that chose the better part. 
A Mary 'twas that wept with broken heart. 
A Mai"y 'twas that did anoint Christ's feet; 
A Mary pour'd on's Head the Spicknard sweet. 
At Christ's Cross standing Maries three I find. 
When others fled, they were not so unkind. 
Christ dead, interr'd, at the Sepulchre door 
Two Maries stand, I find no Women more." 

" So that from Cradle to the Passion; 
From Passion to the Resurrection ; 
From Resurrection to the Ascention, 
Observe you may a Mary still was one, 
The Army of such Ladies so Divine, 
This Lady said, I'le follow they all Ar-mine," 

*' Lady Elect! in whom there did combine 
So many Maries, might'st say all Ar-mine. 
Thou Motlier Sister, Spouse wa'st of the Lord, 
In that in Heart and Life thou kept'st his Word, 



Nipmuck History. 5 

With th' other Mary chose the better part; 
With Mary Magd'len hacl'st a most tender heart." 

" On Christ a Mary spent all that she could; 
Tho- others grudg'd, more if she had she would, 
To th' Head above could'st not, on the feet below 
Thou did'st not spare much cost for to bestow. 
Thy name a precious Ointment, and the Armies 
Of Saints, and Angels are the Lady Armines." 

" Now God and Christ are thine, and what's Divine 
In Heaven's enjoyment, Blest Soul ! Now All are thine." 

Jo. Sheffield. 

A Sketch of the Nipmuck Country. 

Governor Winthrop writes of a " joui-iiey " made by himself, 
and in company with others, to a place now supposed to be 
Sudbnry, Mass. 

January 27, 1632 (old style), "Winthrop in his journal writes : 
" The Governor and some company with bim went up by 
Charles River about eight miles above Watertown (after 
naming certain hills and streams presented to their view). 

" On the west side of Mount Feake, they went np a very high 
rock, from whence they might see all over Neipnett and a very 
high hill due west about forty miles off." — VVinthrop's Journal, 
YoL 1, 68.* 

It is stated in the year 1631 '• a Sagamore from the river 
Qonchtacut which lies west of the Naragancet, had visited 
Boston and had offered the Governor inducements in a prom- 
ised tribute of corn and beaver skins to send some Englishmen 
to settle his country. As the Dutch had already made a set- 
tlement on the Quinnehtuck river known as the lands of the 
' Dutch House of Good Hope ' " (now Hartford, Ct.). 



* This, it would appear, was the first view of Wachusett mountain by 
the English, it being the first mention of the Nipmuck country by the 
colonists. 



6 The Records of Oxford. 

It also appears " there was an Indian trail of the Aga warns, 
Woronoaks, and other small tribes on the Qiionehticut (the 
long tidal river) who were on friendly terms with the power- 
ful ]*^ipmogg or Nipmiick Indians and came into their country 
either to pay tribute or to pass through their wide domains." 

The Neipnet, Neepmug or Nipmuck Indians, inhabited the 
country between the sea-coast and the towns about the Massa- 
chusetts bay eastward, and the Connecticut river westward. 
It is said the name Neipnet or Nipmuck in the Indian lan- 
guage signifies " fresh water," which caused the Indians of 
this interior portion of the country to be thus distinguished 
from those upon the sea-coast. The Nipmuck country extended 
beyond the limits of Worcester county; .as delineated on some 
ancient maps it was shown as extending westward beyond the 
Connecticut river, and on the north into New Hampshire. 
There is no doubt that the territory of this tribe of Indians 
was originally very extensive, stretching over the entire country 
between the Merrimac and Connecticut rivers.* 

According to Rev. John Eliot " Nipmuck or Neipnet was a 
great country lying between the Conactocot and the Massachu- 
setts." 

From Major Gookin's account "The Neipnet region 
extended from Marlborough to the south end of Worcester 
county, and around by the Brookfields through Washakins 
(Nashua) to the northern boundary of the state." 

Col. Church states " the Nipmuck country was the country 
about Dudley and Oxford." 

" These Nipmuck Indians were seated upon less rivers and 
lakes, or large ponds where Oxford now is and towns near 
it." — Governor Hutchinson. 



* The Nipmuck country included all of what is now Worcester county. 

In an ancient edition of Hubbard's " Narrative of the Indian Wars," 
published in 1677, is prefixed a map of New England, being as the title 
expresses " The first map here cut." 



Nipmuck History. y 

In 1647 there is the following record of the Nipmuck 
Indians : 

"The Nopmat (Nipnet or Nipmuck) Indians, having noe 
Sachem of their own, are at liberty, part of them, by their 
own choice, doe appertain e to the Narragansett Sachem and 
parte to the Mohegens."* 

" The Nipmuck Indians included several tribes. The Na- 
ticks, Nashawajs, Pegans, Pawtuckets, Quaboags, Wamesits, 
Hassauamesits and Pennakooks. 

" The Hassauamesits were in Grafton, a part of the territory 
of Sutton. The Naticks were located at Natick ; the Nasha- 
ways were on the Nashua river, from its mouth ; the Pegans 
were in Dudley (now Webster), on a reservation of two hundred 
acres of land; the Pawtuckets were on the Merrimac river 
where Chelmsford now is; the Quaboags were located in Brook- 
field ; the Wamesits were for a time on the Merrimac river, at 
Lowell ; the Pennakooks were on the Merrimac river near 
Concord." — Drake's Indian History. 

* Records of the U. Col. Hazard, 11, 93. 

In 1668 Roger Williams says, " that all the Neipmucks were unques- 
tionably subject to Narrhigonset Sachems, and in a special manner, to 
Mejksah. the son of Canonicus, and late husband, to the old Squaw 
Sachem, now only surviving." Hubbard states the Nipmucks were tribu- 
tary to Massasoit and to Philip, Sachem of Mount Hope. 

"This Squaw Sachem, as is believed, was chief of those inland Indiana 
since denominated the Nipnets, or Nipmucks, and lived in 1631 near 
Wachusett Mountain." — Drake's North American Indiana. 

The Indians in exchange for their land with the English demanded 
certain articles in return. The following deed was given to Capt. Miles 
Standish for the ancient town of Bridgewater, a part of Duxbury. An 
extract of tlie considerations, viz. : " Ousamequin, Sachem of the Contrie 
of Pocanauket." Ousamequin, which name Massasoit adopted during 
the latter part of his life, gave a deed of land to the English, usually 
called Saughtuckett. It was dated 1649. 

The consideration for which the Sachem granted the deed was as 
follows : 



8 The Records of Oxford. 

A Treaty with the Nipmucks. 

In 1643 Governor Winthrop relates tliat " At this court 
Cutsbamekin and Sqnaw Sachem, Mascononoco, Nasha- 
cowam and Wassamagon, two Sachems, near the great hill of the 
west, called (Warehasset, Wachusett,) came into the court and 
according to their former tender to the governor desired to be 
received under our protection and government, &c upon the 
same term that Pnmham and Sacononoco were ; so we causing 
them to understand the articles, and all the ten commandments 
of God, and they freely assenting to all, they were solemnly 
received, and then presented by tbe Court with 20 fathoms 
more of Wampum and the Court gave each of them a coat of 
two yards of cloth and their dinner ; and to them and their men 
every one of them a cup of sack at their departure, so they 
took their leave and went away very joyful." — Governor Win- 
throp's Journal, 2, 156. 

In 1643 Massasoit resided with Nashoonon, chief of the 
Nipmucks. 

In Winthrop's Journal Nashoonon is Nashacowam. 

A more extended account of this early treaty is to be found 
in the records of the Massachusetts Bay. 

" Wossamegon, Nashowanon, Cutshamache, Mascanomet & 
Squa Sachim did voluntarily submit themselves to us, as ap- 
peareth by their covenant subscribed w^*" their own hands, 
hear following & oth' articles to w'^'' they consented. Wee have 
and by these presents do voluntarily & w^'^ont any constraint 
or psuasions, but of o'' owne free motion, put o'^selves, o'' sub- 

7 coats, a yd and half in a coat — 9 hatchets, — 8 Howes, — 20 Knives, — 
4 Moose Skins — 10 yds and a half of Cotton. 

" The land conveyed in the deed extending in length and the breadth 
thereof as followeth, tliat is to say; from ye weare at Sanghtuckett seven 
myles due east, and from said "weare seven (miles) due west, and from 
said weare seven myles due north and from said weare seven (miles) 
due south," etc. 



Nipmuck History. 9 

jects, lands & estates under the government & jurisdiction of 
the Massachusetts, to be governed & ptected by them, accord- 
ing to their just lawes & orders, so farr as wee shal bee made 
capable of understanding them ; & wee do pmise for o^'selves 
all o"" subjects and all o' posterity, to be true and faithfull to 
the said government & ayding to the maintainaiice thereof, to 
o'" best ability. & fro™ time to time to give speedy notice of any 
conspiracy, attempt or evill intention of any which wee shall 
(or) heare of against the same : and we pmise to be willing 
fro"' time to time to be instructed in the knowledg & worship 
of God, in witness whereof wee have hereunto put o" hands 
the S*'' of the first m°. a 1643-1644." 

CUT SHAM A CHE 
NASH OWA NON 
WOS SAM E GON 
MASK A NOM ETT 
SQUA SACHIM 

Certain Questions Ppounded to the Indians & Answers. 

1. To worship ye onely true God, w*=^ made heaven & earth 
& not to blaspheme him. 

An : We do desire to rev'ence y^ God of y® English, & to 
speake well of him, because wee see hee doth better to y® Eng- 
lish than othe'' Gods do to others. 

2. " Not so swear falcely. 

An ; They say they know not w* swering is among y^. 

3. Not to do any unnecessary worke on y® Sabbath day, es- 
pecially w^^in y"" gates of christian towns. 

An : It is easy to y "^ : they have not much to do on any 
day, & they can well take their ease on y* day. 

4. To bono"" their parents & all their supio's. 

An. It is their custome to do so, for the inferio's to bono'' 
their supio's 

5. To kill no man w^'^out just cause and just authority 

2 



lO The Records of Oxford. 

An : This is good and they desire to do so. 

6. To comit no nnclean lust, &c 

An : Though sometime some of y™ do it, yet they count that 
naught, and do not alow it. 

7. Not to steale 

An ; They say to y* as to y^ G^'' quere 

To suffer their children to learn to reade God's word y* they 
may learn to know God aright & worship in his owne way . 

They say as opportunity will serve, and English live among 
y™ they desire so to do. 

That they should not be idle 

To these they consented, acknowledging y™ to bee good 

Being received by us they psented 26 fathoms of wampum, 
& the Court directed the Treasurer to give them five coats, 
two yards in a coate, of red cloth & a potfull of wine. — Mass. 
Col. Records, Vol. II, p. 55. 

Rev. John Eliot, a clergyman of Roxbury, JST. E., educated 
at Cambridge, England, became interested in the benevolent 
project of introducing Christianity into the Nipmuck country 
and in educating the natives, Mr. Eliot having acquired the 
rudiments of the Indian dialect, it is said, from native servants 
in his own family.* 

He was accompanied in his "journeys" by his friend Major- 
General Daniel Gookin, an English gentleman, born in the 
county of Kent, who had at first made a settlement in Vir- 
ginia, but came to Cambridge, N. E., in 1644. Maj. Gookin 
was the superintendent of all the Indians that had subjected 
themselves to the provincial government, and in Mr. Eliot's 
missionary visits to the Indians, he himself, at the same time, 
administered civil affairs among the natives. 



* Mr. Eliot says that " an ludian taken in the Pequot wars, and who 
lived in Dorchester, was the first native who taught him words and was 
his interpreter." 

"He took the most unwearied pains in his strange lessons from this 



Nipniuck History. 1 1 

In 1646 the General Court of Massachusetts " ordered and de- 
creed that two ministers should be chosen by the elders of the 
churches every year, at the Court of Elections, and so to be 
sent, with the consent of their churches with whomsoever 
would freely offer themselves to accompany them in that ser- 
vice to make kuown the heavenly counsel of God among the 
Indians in a most familiar manner, by the help of some able 
interpreter, as might be most available to bring them to the 
knowledge of the truth, and their conversion to Jesus Christ, 
and for this end something might be allowed them by the 
General Court to give away freely to those Indians whom they 
should perceive most willing and ready to be instructed by 
them." — Palfrey's History of New England. 

A week before it had passed this order Rev. John Eliot 
had niade his first essay in preaching to the Indians. A. young 
man who had been a servant in an English house, and under- 
stood his own language, and had a clear pronunciation, Mr. 
Eliot took into his family ; and having, with his assistance, 
translated the Lord's Prayer and the Decalogue, he soon ac- 
quired a knowledge of the Indian language. 

Ten pounds were voted to Mr. Eliot as a gratuity from the 
Court in respect of his great pains and charge in instructing 
the Indians in the knowledge of God. 

Rev. John Eliot obtained for the Indians a grant of land, to 
which he gave the Indian name Noonanetum [Rejoicing]. 

Daniel Gookin, who accompanied Mr. Eliot in his journeys, 
says : " The first place he began to preach at was Nonantum, 
near Watertown, upon the south side of Charles River, 

uncouth teacher, finding progress very slow and baffling, receiving no 
aid from other tongues which he had learned in England, and which 
were so differently constituted, inflected and augmented." 

Mr. Eliot also secured natives to reside with him in his family and to 
accompany him on his visits, to interchange with him words and ideas. 
— Memorial History of Boston, pages 260-261. 



12 TJic Records of Oxford. 

about four or five miles from Roxburj, where lived at that 
time Wabat), one of their principal men, and some Indians 
with him." 

Mr. Eliot set out upon his mission in October, 1646, and sent 
out forerunners to apprise the Indians of his intentions.* 

Waban, a grave and wise man of the same age of the mis- 
sionarj'^ (forty- two), a person of influence, met him at a small 
distance from their settlement, and welcomed him to a large 
wigwam on the hill Nonanrum. 

A number of Indians assembled here to hear the new doctrine. 

After a short service of prayer in English, Mr. Ehot de- 
livei-ed a sermon from Ezekial 37 : 9, 10 : " Then said He unto 
me, Prophesy unto the wind (to which the Indian term " Wa- 
ban " is said to answer). Prophesy son of man, and say to the 
wind (say to Waban) thus saith the Lord God, Come from the 
four winds, O breath, and breathe upon those slain, that they 
may live. So I prophesied, as He commanded me, and the 
breath came into them, and they lived and stood upon their 
feet an exceeding great army." Having closed his sermon, he 
was desirous of knowing whether he had conveyed his senti- 
ments intelligibly in a language so new to himself, he therefore 
inquired whether they comprehended his meaning, to which 
they replied : " We understood all." 

Waban particularly received those happy impressions, which 
remained through life, and qualified him effectually to aid in 
the dpsign of (Christianizing) his countrymen. 

" Having given the children some apples, and the men some 
tobacco, and what else they then had at hand, . . . they 
departed with welcomes." 



* For speedily transmitting intelligence "the Indian messengers ran 
swiftly, and at every settlement fresh messengers are speeded away to 
reach the chief's wigwam. When within about a mile of the place the 
messenger commences hallooing, and all who hear begin to halloo, 
whereby a great concourse is soon gathered to hear the news." 



Nipmuck History. 13 

Before the end of the year three other visits were made. 
"As soon as ever the winter was passed," Mr. Ehot' s Labors 
were resumed. 

John Wampus, a native, brought his son and several Indian 
children to the English to be instructed. 

A school was soon established among them, and the General 
Court having given the neighboring Indians a tract of highland, 
called JSTonantum, and furnished them with various implements 
of husbandry. The Indians many of them professed Chris- 
tianity, and the whole in the vicinity became settled, and the 
Indians conducted their affairs with pru.dence and industry, and 
they adopted the customs of the English, made laws, and had 
their magistrate.* 

Mr. Eliot's efforts were put forth for the civilization as well 
as the Christian ization of the people. He encouraged the 
building of farm-houses, and the making of homes for separate 
families, the planting of gardens and orchards, the raising and 
utilizing of flax and hemp. — Palfrey, II, 336, 337. 

Mr. Eliot in writing to the corporation of London, in 1649, 
says " that a Nipnet Sachem hath submitted himself to the 
Lord, and much desires one of our chief ones to live with him 
and those that are with him." 



*John "Wampus was a Sagamore of the Hassanamesit tribe. He is men- 
tioned as being some time of Hassanamesit. 

"In January, 1666, Eobert Wayard, of Hartford, Ct., conveyed by 
deed, a tract of land situate in Boston, to John Wampus, an Indian of 
Boston, bounded on the common, etc., being 800 feet by 30, with a 
dweUing house thereon. This tract is now partly covered by St. Paul's 
church. 

"The records of Suffolk county give further evidence of his concern 
in the sale and purchase of real estate. 

"Tradition states John Wampus crossed the Atlantic and was in 
London, that he returned to New England in the same ship with a Dr. 
Sutton, that his health failed on his return, and that he received partic- 
ular attention from him on this voyage. " 



14 TJie Records of Oxford. 

Mr. Eliot writes again to the same society in the year 1651 : 

"There is a great country called Nipnet, where there be 
many Indians dispersed, many of whom have sent to our In- 
dians desiring that some may be sent unto them to teach them 
to pray to God." 

It would appear that in England there was a lively sentiment 
in favor of Christianizing the heathen Nipmuck " in these 
ends of the earth," as well as other natives in the new world, 
and that the occupancy of New England by the English ad- 
venturers should result not only in the accumulation of gold, 
but that Christianity should be promulgated " in this hideous 
and howling wilderness," and throughout their possessions in 
America. 

In writing of New England, Captain Weymouth, an histor- 
ian of the time, asserts, that " the result hoped for in planting 
settlements on these shores was to Christianize these dark 
regions of America," which were designated by the English as 
the West Indies.* 



CHAPTER 11. 



Records from the Royal Historical Society, London. 

The Christian education of the Nipmuck Indians through tHe 
correspondence of Rev. John Eliot, and the publication in 
London of a series of the " Eliot Tracts." 



*" The first royal charter for establishing the colony of New Eng- 
land had declared that to win and incite the natives of that country 
to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of 
mankind and the Christian faith is our royal intention and the adven- 
turers' free profession, is the principal end of the plantation." 



Records from the Royal Historical Society, London. 1 5 

In July, 1649, such was the effect of the report from New 
England on Cromwell, Calamy and others, as well as on the 
Long Parliament, that an act or ordinance was found with 
this title : 

"A Corporation for the promoting and propagating the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England." 

Thus the New England Company was established by the 
Long Parliament, 

"All honor then to Cromwell and the Commons of England 
in Parliament assembled as the founders of the first Protestant 
mission to Pagans." 

This society continued until the "Kestoration of the Mon- 
archy," 1660. 

A general collection or subscription was to be made through 
all counties, cities, towns and parishes of England and Wales, 
for the purposes of the corporation. 

Nearly $12,000 were forthwith collected by voluntary sub- 
scription throughout England and Wales, and several manors, 
lands and houses were purchased. An amount of at least 
£11,430 was expended in the purchase of landed property at 
Eriswell, in Suffolk, and a farm at Plumstead, in Kent, as well 
as several houses in London. 

All these purchases were conveyed to this parliamentary 
corporation, or to some of the sixteen members as its trustees. 

The corporation appointed commissioners and a treasurer 
in New England, who received the income transmitted to them 
by the corporation of England for the maintenance of mission- 
aries and school teachers among the natives till the restoration 
of Charles II. 

It is said^ Mr. Eliot's first effort to form an Indian town at 
Nonantum in Newtown proved a failure in his instruction to 
the natives on account of its being so near Boston and other 
English settlements. The surroundings of a so-called Christian 
community were unfavorable to influencing the natives from 



1 6 The Records of Oxford. 

heathenism to Christianit}'^, and he desired a position more re- 
mote, and petitioned for a grant at Natick, and in 1651 the 
General Court set apart two thousand acres of land for an 
Indian plantation. 

In 1651 Rev. John Eliot removed to Natick. In 1660 a 
native church was formed in this settlement, and though Mr. 
Eliot was a clergyman, having the care of a church in Roxbury 
for twenty-iive years, he preached and taught the natives, 
establishing schools and native churches with Christian teachers.* 

" These commissioners received from the London Society 
authority to establish a school for the natives at Cambridge. 
Young men among the Indians were received as pupils to be 
educated for teachers. The society distributed bounties to en- 
courage education; they printed catechisms in the native lan- 
guage and furnished books for teachers." — Palfrey, I, 333. 

"In 1658 Eliot's native teachers received two pounds each 
for their services, while Eliot received two pounds for Bibles, 
spectacles, and primers for the natives." — Palfrey, I, 333. 

" The expenses of the London Society in this, the eighth 
year of its establishment, was five hundred and twenty pounds 
in salaries to teachers and the expenses of pupils in the Cam- 
bridge schools."— Palfrey, I, 333. 

Records Received from the Royal Historical Society, 

London. 

" (May 29, 1660.) Then this Corporation, created by the 
Long Parliament, ceased. 

" There was, therefore, a short cessation of the income, for 
the Royalist vendor of the property at Eriswell in Suffolk, re- 

*Tradition states there is still to be seen at Natick the oak tree under 
which Mr. Eliot instructed the natives. 

The Niprauck Indians had a constant and friendly intercourse with 
the Natick Indians, and became interested with them in the preacher of 
the "new Faith." 



Records from the Royal Historical Society^ London. 1 7 

entered and obtained from the tenants a good deal of the rents 
until the Company was revived or created anew by the Order 
in Council, when he was obliged by the decree in a Chancery 
suit to fulfil the contract he had entered into with the former 
Corporation. 

" The Ordinance could no longer be recognized, but by the 
exertions of 'the excellent Eobert Boyle, so notable for his 
beneficence,' and others, an Order of Charles II, in Council 
was obtained April, 1661, for a new Charter of Incorporation 
vesting in the Company then created (and now subsisting) the 
property which had been given or bought for the purposes of 
the late reported Corporation." 

" Order in Council, for the New England Company's 

Charter. 

At the Court at Whitehall the 10th day of April 1661. 
Present : 
The King's Most Excellent Majesty. 
His Eoyal Highness the Duke Earl of Sandwich. 

of York. Earl of Lauderdale. 

Lord Chancellor. Lord Viscount Valentia. 

Duke of Albemarle. Lord Roberts. 

Marquis of Dorchester. Lord Seamore. 

Lord Great Chamberlain. Mr. Comptroller. 

Lord Chamberlain. Mr. Vice Ciiamberlain. 

Earl of Northumberland. Mr. Secretary Nicholas. 

Earl of Berks. Mr. Secretary Morris. 

Earl of Norwich. 

Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper. 

" Upon reading of Mr. Attorney General his report to this 

Board upon a Petition of divers for propagating the Gospel in 

America to him referred by Order of the 14th of November 

1660, and a draft prepared for renewing the Charter of the 

3 



1 8 The Records of Oxford. 

Corporation therein specified and full debate thereof had ; It 
is ordered that the said Corporation may by the said Charter 
have power to purchase £2000 per annum and may have 
liberty to transport yearly £1000 in Bullion or foreign money 
making entry from time to time of what shall be so transported 
in the Port of London in the Custom House there. And the 
Lord Viscount Valentia is to consider of and examine the list 
of names of the members whereof the said Corporation is to 
consist and to offer the same to the Board and according to 
this direction Mr. Attorney is to fill up the blanks and perfect 
the said draft of a Charter. And also to add thereunto a 
clause that all lands tenements and hereditaments heretofore 
given or bought to the use or uses in this Charter mentioned 
shall from henceforth be vested in the said Corporation and 
their successors with power to sue for and recover the same 
and any arrears thereof due. 

"John Nicholas." 

The charter was completed February 7, 1661-2. 

" The members of the Company were forty-five in number, 
and included Churchmen and Dissenters. 

" Lord Chancellor Clarendon and other noblemen head the 
list, and Boyle, the first Governor, with several surviving mem- 
bers of the late reputed Corporation, and many Aldermen and 
Citizens of London, are included in it. The yearly revenue of 
the Company's lands, money, and stock was to be applied for 
the promoting and propagating the Gospel of Christ unto and 
amongst the heathen natives in or near New England and parts 
adjacent in America, and also for civilizing, teaching, and in- 
structing the said heathen natives in or near New England, and 
their children, not only in the principles and knowledge of the 
true religion, and in morality and the knowledge of the English 
tongue, and in other liberal arts and sciences, but for the edu- 
cating and placing of them or their children in some trade, 
mystery, or lawful calling." 



Records from the Royal Historical Society, London. 1 9 

Records of the Royal Historical Society of London Pre- 
sented FOR THE " Records of Oxford." 

Extracts from a letter dated Lincoln's Inn, London, Novem- 
ber, 1878. From Henry W. Busk, Esq., a member of the 
New England Company, to Rev. Brooke Herford of Chicago, 
U. S. A.: 

"The labours of the Company and the Commissioners* and 
others in America were carried on unremittingly till the Amer- 
ican War of Independence interrupted the usual remittances. 
When the 13 provinces were acknowledged as independent 
States, the Company could not safely exercise its charter trusts 
out of the King's dominions, and at first transferred these 
operations to New Brunswick, and appointed Commissioners 
there so far as concerned the income of the Charter Fund. But 
the efforts there were not successful, and a new plan, recom- 
mended by one of the New Brunswick Commissioners, was, 
after consulting the Governor of the Province and other in- 

* " Increase and Cotton Mather were among the Commissioners, and 
were frequent correspondents of the Company after 1671." — London 
Records. 

From the funds of this corporation an allowance of £50 per annum 
was paid to Mr. Eliot as a stipend in supplement of his moderate salary 
of £60 as a minister of Roxbury. Fifty pounds was also allowed to 
Governor Mayhew for his interest in the education and Christianizing 
the Indians of Martha's Vineyard. Governor Mayhew was a co-worker 
with Eliot. 

The income of the English Society amounted to the then large sum of 
about seven hundred pounds. 

September 5, 1661. 

Mr. Eliot published the New Testament and other books for the in- 
struction of the natives. In 1663 the Old Testament was printed at 
Cambridge, Mass., in the Natick or Nipmuck dialect and was the first 
Bible printed in America. 

In 1890 a single copy of the Eliot Bible of the edition of 1663 was 
sold in London for £250. 



20 The Records of Oxford. 

habitants, adopted in 1807, and acted on till 1822, when this 
plan also was found to have failed. The Company then trans- 
ferred its operations to other parts of British America, prin- 
cipally near the Grand Iliver north of Lake Erie, and near 
Lake Ontario, at the Bay of Quinte, and near the Rice and 
Cheinorig Lakes. 

"During the suspension of remittances to America the Com- 
pan}'^ accumulated and invested the income of all the three 
funds. By decrees of the Court of Chancery in 1792, 1808, 
and 1836, all the three funds have been regulated. Boyle's 
rent-charge is applicable by the Company for the advancement 
of the Christian religion among infidels in British America; so 
also the income of the accumulations of that fund. The income 
of Dr. Williams' fund and accunmlations is applicable by the 
Company towards the advancement of the Christian religion 
among Indians, Blacks and Pagans in British Plantations and 
Colonies, and for their education, etc. The income of the 
Charter Fund and of its accumulations is applicable in Upper 
Canada." 

Sketch of New England Company by Henky W. Busk. 

"Those stations which have been most permanently men- 
tioned are the following : 

" 1. Among the Mohawks and other Six Nations Indians 
settled on the banks of the Grand River, between Brantford 
and Lake Erie. 

" 2. On the shores of the smaller Lakes, Rice Lake twelve 
miles south of Peterborough and (Mud or) Chemong Lake ten 
miles noi'th of Peterborough. 

' '6. On the banks of the Garden River, near Sault Ste. 
Marie (the rapids Ijetween Lake Superior and Lake Huron). 

"4. On Ruper Island, in British Columbia. 

"Tlie Indians of the Six Nations include the Mohawks, 
Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras. Up 



Records from the Royal Historical Society, London. 2 1 

to the time of the American War of Independence the first 
five named inhabited the valleys on the rivers and lakes of 
Central New York. 

" There are two schools near the Mohawk village close to 
Brantford, as well as a parsonage for the church there. This 
church possesses the communion plate and a large English 
Bible, presented by ' Good Queen Anne ' to the Indian church 
in the Mohawk valley, which the Indians had been obliged to 
abandon. The old Mission Church was built by the Mohawks 
about 1782, about one mile south-east of the city of Brantford 
on the north-east of Grand River. In this church they placed 
the bell they received from London. 

The Rev. John Eliot, in his last illness, observed : 'There 
is a cloud, a dark cloud, upon the Work of the Gospel among 
the poor Indians. The Lord revive and prosper that Work 
and grant that it may live when I am dead.' 

" We have throughout tried to do our very best for our red 
brethren. What success we have had in doing so you might 
best learn by a visit to our Mohawk Institution close to Brant- 
ford, where the superintendent will be glad to show you what 
is being done for the education, etc., of some ninety or more 
of the native boys and girls. In the Mohawk Parsonage is 
our aged missionary Canon Nelles,* and not many miles oflE 
are several thousand Indians, with nine day-schools on the Tus- 
carora Reserve, and the Rev. Isaac Barr at the Kanyenga Par- 
sonage, and a native curate, the Rev. Albert Anthony, and 
several interpreters and school-teachers, as well as Methodist 
and Baptist ministers on this Reserve, and at Chemong Lake 
and at the Bay of Quinte. The members of the Company 
have always been a mixture of Churchmen and Dissenters 
working harmoniously together. 

" In many parts of America the natives seem to be dying 
out. We have the satisfaction of feeling that with us they 

*Now Archdeacon Nelles. 



22 The Records of Oxford. 

are increasing and improving in spite of the bad example and 
influence of unprincipled Whites. 

" Mr. Robert Ashton, our present superintendent of the Mo- 
liawk Institution, has filled that post for six years, and is always 
much pleased with the visits of enlightened friends of the Red 
men. When you call there you will perhaps be a little sur- 
prised at the civilization and attainments, physical, intellectual, 
moral, and religions, of the eighty or ninety young people there 
training. At a few miles distance yon will find the Six JSTations 
Reserve, some ten miles long by six broad, with 3,000 Red 
men (five-sixths of them professing Christianity), aided by a 
considerable staff of native as well as white clergy and other 
officers, in making progress and gradually overcoming obstacles 
and resisting temptations and bad examples." 

In 1874 Lord Dufferin accompanied by Lady Dufleriu visited 
the Mohawk Church as Governor-General of Canada, and re- 
ceived addi-esses from the Indians, and added his signature in 
the Bible that already bore those of R. R. H., the Prince of 
Wales, and R. R. H., the Duke of Connaught. 

Hon. Robert Boyle, of Stalbridge Manor, was the fast friend 
of the distinguished Rev. John Ehot, and identified with him 
for many years in his efforts to educate and Christianize the 
Nipmuck Indians — "the poor souls of the West Indies," as 
then styled. Mr. Eliot recognized Hon. Robert Boyle, tlie 
governor of the corporation for propagating the gospel in New 
England, as the source of the life and efficiency of the society. 

Rev. Mr. Eliot, in his correspondence with Hon. Robert 
Boyle relative to the Nipmuck country and the native Indians, 
very quaintly addresses him as " Right honorable, deep learned, 
charitable, indefatigable and nursing father" of the natives of 
the Nipmuck country. 

Robert Boyle was celebrated for his unrivaled learning, and 
for his great excellencies of Christian character. 



Records from the Royal Historical Society, London. 23 

Note. — Rev. Mr. Mayhew forwarded the following sketch to the 
London Society, etc. : 

" Labaa Panu, who died at Gayhead, November 6th, 1715, when he 
was ten Years and about nine Months old, was the son of a Christian 
Indian teacher. 

" He was till he was near nine Years old rude and disorderly, was apt 
to profane the Sabbath Day, and could scarcely be restrained from play- 
ing at Meeting: nor did the many good Instructions and Exhortations 
given him by his Parents appear to have any good Effect upon him. 

' ' His Parents, grieved with his Miscarriage, at length began to deal 
more sharply with him, taking therein that Advice of the wise Man, 
Correct thy Son, and he shall give thee rest ; and as they found the 
Counsel good, so they found the Promise true; for due Corrections thus 
added to good Instructions, did, by God's Blessing, soon produce a re- 
markable Change in the Carriage and Behaviour of their Child." 

" He about this time told his Mother, that formerly he had not believed 
there was a God, but now he was persuaded that there was one, who had 
placed him here in the World." 

" And for what End, said his Mother, do you think God has placed you 
here as he has done? That I might seek and serve him, said the Child; 
and as God has placed us here upon Earth, so he will shortly remove us 
again from it. His Mother then proposing the Doctrine of the final 
Judgment to him, he readily asserted his firm Persuasion of the Truth 
and Certainty of that Doctrine ; and he then carried himself as one, that 
must be brought into Judgment for all he said and did, or ought to do. 
He applied himself with Diligence to the reading of his Books, which 
he had before too much neglected ; and he now also studied his Cate- 
chism, and would often of his own accord repeat by Heart the Questions 
and Answers, which he had before learned ; and he and some of the other 
Children of the Family, and some also of another Christian Family that 
lived near by, used by turns to catechise one another; by which Means 
the Knowledge of this Child, as well as some of the rest, was considera- 
bly increased. " 

" His Mother sometimes hearing of him at these Exercises, would ask 
him, whether he really believed the Truth of the Answers in his Cate- 
chism which he repeated ; making this Demand more especially when he 
came to Answers of the greatest Importance ; and he would still, in An- 
swer to her, declare his firm Belief of the Truths which he so learned. 
"His Mother observing that he was alone, saying something which 



24 The Records of Oxford. 

she could not so hear as to understand, she once asked him what, and to 
whom he used to speak in his Retirement? 

" To which he answered, that he used to speak to God, and pray to 
him, to pardon all his Sins, and to make him good. His Father also 
sometimes found him alone in the Forest, calling on the name of the 
Lord ; and sometimes heard him in the Depths of the Night, when he 
was upon his Bed, praying to God for his Mercy and Salvation. 

" He talked often of his own frailty and Mortality. 

" He was sick but about a Month before he died ; in which time he 
behaved himself as became a Youth that remembered his Creator. 

" Soon after he was taken ill, his Mother asking him, whether he were 
willing to die and leave this World, and all his Enjoyments in it, he 
after a little Pause said, that he found in himself an Unwillingness at 
present so to do. But why so said his Mother to him, this is a very 
troublesome World, here are many Afflictions to be undergone; whereas 
Heaven is a most excellent Place, wherein there is no Trouble or Sorrow 
to be indured." 

"I am concerned, said the child weeping, for my Little Brother, (one 
younger than himself). I now keep with him and look after him; but 
if I die, I can take no more care of him. 

" Don't, said his Mother, let that trouble you; if you die before your 
Brother, it will not be long before he will follow after you; and if you 
go to heaven, he will, if he loves and serves God, come thither to you, 
and there live with you forever; the which that he may do, I will en- 
deavour to teach him to know and serve the Lord. 

" Do you therefore seek to God to prepare you for your End ; and be 
willing to die, and go to your God, when he sees meet to call you." 

"Yes said Laban smiling, I will be so; I will now set my Heart no 
lono-er upon my Brother, nor be unwilling to leave him ; Come hither 
Joseph, said he to him ; who then coming to him, he took him by the 
Hand and said, Farewcl my Brother, you shall not offend (or hinder) 
me any longer, be thou diligent in seeking after God! 

" After this he never discovered the least unwillingness to die, but set 
himself to seek the Lord with his whole Heart, and called daily upon 
him for his Mercy to be extended to him for the sake of Jesus Christ his 
only Saviour." 

"He underwent much Pain in the time of his Sickness, yet he said it 
was God that laid the same upon him, and he did bear with much 
Patience the mighty Hand of God which he was then under, constantly 
trusting in and crying to him only for Deliverence. 



Hassa na in isset . 2 5 

"When he perceived that he was nigh to Death, he said but little to 
any that were about him, but kept almost continually praying to God, 
often saying. Oh ! my Heavenly Father, have Mercy on me. 

"When his Friends asked him whether he were willing to die, and 
whether he had Hopes that God would save him, he still answered af- 
firmatively to these Questions. After his Voice so failed him that he 
could not pronounce perfect Sentences, he still kept praying to God and 
saying, Woi— Woi — Woi ; which may be rendered in English, I pray — 
I pi-ay — I pray, which were the last Words he ever was heard to speak." 



CHAPTER III. 

Hassanamisset. 



The territory of Hassanamisset (now Grafton) has an his- 
toric record of great interest. 

It was one of the Indian reservations for the Christianized 
Indians set off by the provincial government upon the petition 
of Rev. John EHot. 

The grant was made May 15, 1654, viz. : " Liberty is granted 
to the Indians of Hassanamiset, being about 16 miles west of 
Sudbury, to make a town there, provided it does not prejudice 
any former grant, nor that they shall dispose of it without 
leave first had and obtained from this court."* (The Indians 
were allowed to build towns of their own wigwams.) 

In 1654 the General Court, on Mr. Eliot's petition, set apart 
this tract of land (Flassanamiset) for the use of the Indians to 
prevent any conflicting claims between the English and the 
natives . 

" No Indian town gave stronger assurances of success 
than Hassanamiset ; at that time it had become the central 

*Archives of Mass., Vol. 30. 
4 



26 The Records of Oxford. 

point of civilization and Christianity to the whole Nipmuck 
country." 

A school was here established, where the Bible was read and 
studied in the Indian language. Young men were here edu- 
cated and sent into the neighboring towns to preach the gospel 
(as Christian teachers). A regular government was created, 
and the forms of law strictly observed. The population of the 
town was small, yet, by reason of their constant intercourse 
with their neighbors, a large number of natives enjoyed the 
benefits of this school, and before the year 1674, within which 
Manchang, now Oxford, was included, seven new towns of 
praying Indians, as they were termed, were formed in the 
neighborhood, most of which were furnished with teachers 
from this place. A church was here established. 

The following is from an old record : 

" Hassunnimesut it lieth upon Nichmuke River ; The people 
were well known to the English so long as Connecticot Road 
lay that way, and their Religion was judged to be real by all 
that travelled that journey and had occasion to lodge, especially 
to keep a Sabbath among them." 

In 1674 Rev. John Eliot and Maj. Gookin visited all the 
" Christianized Indians " of the Nipmuck country. Gookin, 
in his description, saj^s : 

" Hassamanesit signitieth a place of small stones it lieth about 
thirty eight miles from Boston west southerly, and is about two 
miles eastward of Nipmuck river (Blackstone) and near unto 
the old road way to Connecticut." 

Hubbard describes it as a place up into the woods beyond 
Medfield and Mendon. 

It was called Hassanamisco by the Indians, and went by that 
name until 1735, when it was incorporated and named Grafton. 

James the printer, one of the Indians of Hassanamessit. was 
distinguished for his assistance in printing the Indian Bible, 
being employed in setting up the type. 



Hassananiisset. 27 

In 1709 the English and Indian Psalter was pnblished by a 
son of Samuel Green and James the printer, within his Majesty's 
Province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England. 

James had been apprenticed to Samuel Green to learn the 
printing trade in Boston. 

Hubbard's account of James the printer: 
" When he was put to an apprenticeship (after leaving the 
' Charity School ' at Cambridge) for sixteen years. He had ob- 
tained some skill in printing, and might have obtained more 
had he not like a false villain ran away from his master before 
his time was out 1 " 

" Printer" became the surname of the family, and his re- 
puted descendants have lived in Grafton. 

The magistrates were directed to take care to have a court 
held once every quarter at such place or places where the In- 
dians did ordinarily assemble to hear the word of God, with 
permission of the Indian chiefs " to bring any of their own 
people to the said courts, and to keep a court of themselves 
once every month." 

Pennahannit, called Captain Josiah, was " Marshal General " 
over all the Christianized Indian towns, and used to attend the 
courts. 

The following is said to be a copy of a warrant which was 
issued by the ruler Waban for this court : 

" You, you big constable, quick you catch um Jeremiah 
Offscow, strong you hold um, safe you bring um, afore me, 
Waban, Justice of the peace." 

" A young justice asked him what he should do when In- 
dians got drunk and quarreled. He replied, ' tie um all up, and 
whip um plaintiff, whip um 'fendant, and whip um witness.' "* 

''May 14, 1704. 

" The township of Sutton was purchased by the English of 

*Allen Biog. Dictionary. 



I 



28 The Records of Oxford. 

John Wampus, and some other Indians of the Nipmuck 
country. 

" Sutton is situate in the Nipmug country between the towns 
of Mendon, Worcester, New Oxford, Sherburne and Marl- 
borough, of eight miles square ; within its limits is included a 
tract of land four miles square called Hassanamisco, an Indian 
reservation. 

" Sutton Yielding, Kenderingand Paying therefore unto our 
Sovereign Lady Queen Anne, her Kings and Successors, one- 
tifth part of all the Gold and Silver Oar and Precious stones, 
which from time to time, and at all times forever hereafter, 
shall happen to be found, gotten, had, or obtained in any of the 
said lands and Premises, or within any part or parcel thereof. 
In lieu and stead of all Rents, Services, Dues, Dutys, and de- 
mands whatsoever from the said lands and premises, and for 
every part and parcel thereof." 

As the Indians were diminished in Hassanamisco [Grafton] 
the white people became pr(»prietors, in 1728, of the soil, by pur- 
chase, for the consideration of £2,500, and the grant was made 
on condition " that they should provide preaching and school- 
ing and seats in the meetinghouse for the remaining Indians." 

The General Court, from the first, appointed a committee of 
three to superintend and take care of the Indian property, both 
personal and real. In 1765 there were fourteen Indians in 
town ; their numbers graduallj^ diminished ; but it was not until 
about the year 1825 that the last of the Nipmucks ceased to 
exist. They received their yearly income in the month of May 
from their funds, at which time they usually had a joyous 
holiday. Blankets, psalters and psalm-books were distributed 
among them as well as money. 

Sept. 17, 1674, Eev. John Eliot, with Major Gookin, visited 
Pakachoag, now in Worcester. Maj. Gookin writes : 

" We took leave of the Christian Indians at Chabanakong- 
komun, (now Webster), and took our journey, 17th of the sev- 



Rev. John Eliot visits Worcester. 29 

eutli month, by Manchage (Oxford) to Pakachoag, a part of 
Worcester, which lieth from Mauchage, north-west, about 
twelve miles. We arrived there about noon. We repaired to 
the Sagamore's house, called John , who kindly enter- 
tained us. There is another Sagamore belonging to this place, 
of kindred to the former, whose name is Solomon, alias Woo- 
anakochu. This man was also present, who courteously wel- 
comed us. As soon as the people could be got together, Mr. 
Eliot preached unto them, and they attended reverently. Their 
teacher, named James Speen, being present, read and set the 
tune of a psalm that was sung afEectionately. Then the whole 
duty conchided with prayer. 

" After some short respite, a Court was kept among them. 
My cliief assistant was Wattasacompanum, ruler of the Nip- 
muck Indians, a grave and pious man of the chief Sachems 
blood of the Nipmuck country. He resides at Hassanamisset, 
but by former appointment calleth here, together with some 
others. The principal matter done at this Court was, first, to 
constitute John and Solomon to be rulers of this people and 
co-ordinate in power, clothed with the authority of the English 
government, which they accepted ; also, to allow and approve 
James Speen for their minister. This man is of good parts 
and is pious. He hath preached to this people almost two 
years, but he yet resides at Hassanamisset, about seven miles 
distant. Also, they chose and the Court confirmed a new con- 
stable, a grave and sober Indian called Matoonas. Then I gave 
both the rulers, teacher, constable and people their respective 
charges, to be diligent and faithful for God, zealous against sin, 
and careful in sanctifying the Sabbath. 

" Having sent a grave and pious Indian to be a teacher in 
Nashaway, near Lancaster, with a letter of advice and exhorta- 
tion, written and dated at Pakachoag, and nominated one of 
that tribe, who was present, as constable, with power to appre- 
hend drunkards, take away their strong drink, and bring the 



30 TJie Records of Oxford. 

offenders before himself for punishment, an office which the 
candidate refused to accept until he could consult his friends, 
the exercises were concluded with singing a psalm and offering 
prayer and they retired to rest. The next morning early, they 
passed to Marlborough and thence returned to their homes. — 
Mass. Hist. ColL I, 192 ; Hubbard's Narrative, 101. 

Maj. Gookin sent Jethro of Natick, one of the most notice- 
able of the Christianized Indians, though it is said " these 
Indians, in general, made but sorry Christians " to Nashaway 
to preach to the natives of that place, Mr. Eliot having never 
visited them. 

Maj. Gookin gave to Jethro a letter written by himself to 
the Indians, desiring them to keep the Sabbath, and to abstain 
from drunkenness to which they were much prone. 

Jethro was made a constable that he might exercise authority 
and when placed in office had with the power given to him a 
black staff as his insignia of office. 

The chiefs and Sagamores were tributary and subordinate. 
Wattasacompanum was chief ruler, his efforts were to preserve 
friendly relations when the planters first arrived, with the In- 
dians. 

The principal settlement of the Indians in Worcester was on 
the hill rising in the south part of the town and extending into 
Ward, called by them, Pakachoag. It is described by Gookin : * 

" This village lyeth about three miles south from the new road 
way that leadeth from Boston to Connecticut ; it consists of about 
twenty families, and hath about one hundred souls therein. 

" This town is situated upon a fertile hill, and is denominated 
from a delicate spring of water that is there." 

In 1674 the township of Oxford was known as a tract of 
land lying in the Nipmuck country, by its Indian name of 
Maiichage, Manchage or Manchaug. 



* Oa this range of highland is the site of "Holy Cross College." 



Julia Jaha. 31 

The first record of Manchaug, now Oxford, was made by 
Kev. John Eliot and Major-General Gookin, Sept. 17, 1674, 
O. S. on their " journey " to Pakachoag a part of Quinsigamond 
now Worcester. 

" In 1674 Rev. John EHot and General Gookin visited the 
new Christianized towns in the Nipmuck country. The first of 
thes6, says Gookin is, ' Manchage [Oxford] which lieth to the 
westward of ISTiprauck river [Blackstone] about eight miles, 
and is from Hassanamesitt west by south, about ten miles, 
and it is from Boston about fifty miles. To it belongeth about 
twelve families and about sixty souls. For this place we ap- 
pointed Waberktamin, a hopeful young man, for their minister. 
There is no land yet granted by the general Court to this place, 
nor to any other of the praying towns. But the court in- 
tended shortly upon the application and professed subjection 
of those Indians unto the yoke of Christ, to do for them as 
they have done for other praying Indians.' " * 

The church was formed in Manchage [Oxford] it is said in 
1672. 

Julia Jaha. 

"Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind 
Sees God in clouds or hears Him in the wind." 

Pope. 

Julia Jaha was the last of the Nipmuck Indians in Ox- 
ford, her mother was of the Began tribe of Nipmuck In- 
dians living on a reservation in Webster, Mass., and the father 
of Julia was a Mohegan. The parents of Julia, with their 



*Gookin's Historical Collections of the Indians in New England, 
printed in Coll. Mass. Hist. Society in 1792. 

' ' The tract of land from Marlborough to Manchaug [Oxford, ] was 
wdth few exceptions of a cleared space on which the Indians reared their 
corn an unbroken wilderness interspersed with a few meadows or 
marshes as they were styled at that time." 



32 The Records of Oxford. 

children, lived in a sorry little cottage. When Julia was a 
child, one lovely sunny morning in the spring of the year, she 
being seated on a mossy little bank, as she gazed upon the river 
and sky, admiring their beauty, and the woods just appearing 
in their foliage, with the gay songs of the birds which arrested 
her attention, she exclaimed to herself, " God must have made 
all so beautiful," and hastening to her mother with questions 
about God, inquiring if all good people would at death live 
with Him, and to confirm her belief she inquired of her mother, 
" Will priest Williams be there too." Julia had seen Rev. Mr. 
Williams, the clergyman of Dudley,* at the Indian funerals, 
and may be she had attended church service and sat in one of 
the high corner pews. Julia was taught to read while young. 
From her childhood she thought much of God, and was in- 
structed in her catechism and received many good counsels 
from her mother, nor were these lessons without good effect.f 
When Julia was some twelve years of age her mother died. 
She was surprised to witness with what willingness her mother 
left her family, without distrust or anxiety, in God's care. She 
was persuaded the Christian faith of her mother gave her this 
happiness in the hour of death. Julia was then removed from 
her home and placed at service in the family of the late Major 
John Brown of Dudley, where she was taught all the nice arts 
of housekeeping. She ever recalled the family with great re- 
spect. The young ladies were so elegant and the sons were all 
her young masters never to grow old, and Julia, after living a 
long and Christian life, in her departure from earth was heard 
by the clergyman who attended her to whisper in broken ac- 
cents, " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." % 



*Mr. Williams was the clergymen in Dudley from June 12, 1799, to 
March 16, 1831. 

tJulia Jaha, known by marriage Julia Daille. 

J On a Memorial Day in memory of the Huguenots ''of Oxford, June 
29, 1881, Julia was invited to be present, as the sole remnant of 



jfulia Jaha. 33 

Julia ever testified tliat her tribe were conscious of great in- 
justice done to tliem in all their transactions with the English, 
and then added with much feeling of grief, "They would de- 
stroy the graves of our dead as of no account and make a field 
of grain of our Indian sepulchre." 

On Joshua Pegan's old field the first church in the town of 
Dudley was erected on the summit of a hill. The Pegan tribe 
of Indians gave four acres of land for its site in 1734, "on 
condition that all of their tribe, who should ever inhabit the 
town, should have the right to convenient seats in the meeting- 
house on days of public worship." As late as 1790, there 
were about a dozen of this tribe left who owned some two hun- 
dred acres of good land near the center of the town. They were 
cared for by a committee by the order of the General Court.* 

About five miles distant from Manchaug, now Oxford, a 
second town, called Chabanakongkomun, now Webster,f Major 
Gookin narrates : 

" It hath its denomination from a very great pond, that bor- 
ders upon the southward of it. This village is fifty-five miles 
south-west of Boston. There are about nine families and forty- 
five souls. The people are of sober deportment, and better 
instructed in the worship of God than any of the new praying 
towns. Their teacher's name is Joseph, who is one of the 
church of Hassanamessit ; a sober, pious and ingenious person, 
and speaks English well, and is well read in the Scriptures. 

the Nipmuck Indians of Oxford. On receiving a gift of money from 
Hon. Zachariah Allen of Providence, E. I., and otlier gentlemen present, 
she was much gratified vrith their attentions and the kindness extended 
to her. She exclaimed to a friend, " They have to-day made me a queen 
and crowned me with silver." 

*The Indian seats in the church were two large corner pews in 
the gallery, over the door of the church, the places which in other 
churches were devoted to slaves or the poor. 

fSometimes named Chaubunagungamaug and Chargoggagoggman- 
choggagogg. 

5 



34 The Records of Oxford. 

He M'as the first that settled this town, and got tlie people to 
him about two years since. It is a new plantation, and is well 
accommodated with uplands and meadows. At this place 
dwells an Indian called Black James, who, about a year since, 
was constituted constable of all the praying towns. He is a 
person that hath approved himself diligent and courageous, 
faithful and zealous to suppress sin ; and so he was confirmed 
in his office another year. In 1674 Mr. Eliot preached unto 
this people, and we prayed and sang psalms with them, and ex- 
horted them to stand fast in the faith. 

" A part of one night we spent in discoursing with them, and 
resolving a variety of questions propounded by them, touching 
matters of religion and civil order. 

" The teacher Joseph and the constable James went with us 
into the next town, which is called Maanexit." 

In a letter from Rev. John Eliot to Hon. Robert Boyle, 
of London, dated April 22, 1684, are the following extracts : 

" This last gift of £400 for the impression of the Indian 
Bible doth set a diadem of beauty upon all your former 
acts of pious charity, and commandeth us to return unto 
your honour's all thankful acknowledgments according to our 
abilities." 

Nov., 1683, £460 had also been advanced by the society. 

" The places where the Indians meet to worship God and 
sanctify the Sabbath are many ; the most are stated places, in 
the Massachusetts ; since the wars, are contracted into four — 
Natick, Poukipoy (Stoughton), Wamesut (Lowell) and Chach- 
aubunkkakowok (Webster). 

" The occasional meetings are at places of fishing, hunting, 
gathering chesnuts in their season. 

" In Plymouth Pattent there are about ten places where they 
meet to worship God. 

" An intelligent person of (Marthas) Vineyard reckoned up 
unto me ten places where God is worshiped every Lord's day 



CJiristianized Tozvns. 



35 



in that Island. In Nantucket there be about five places of 
prayer and keeping Sabbaths. 

" The seven old Christianized towns (praying towns) were 
Natick, Pakeniitt or Punkapoag (Stoughton), — Ockoocangan- 
sett (Marlborough), — Wamesitt (Lowell),— Hassanamesit 
(Grafton),— Nashobah (Littleton),— Magunkook (Hopkinton). 
These Indian communities extended from Hassanamesit east- 
ward to English settlements on the eastern coast." 

Maj. Gookin, in his journal containing a sketch of a visit 
with Eev. John Eliot to the Nipmnck country in 1674, men- 
tions the new Christianized towns, Manchaug (Oxford), twelve 
families, — Chabanakongkomun (Webster), five miles southerly, 
nine families, — Maanexit on Quinebaug river, four or five miles 
further south, — Quantisset (Thompson Hill), and Wabquasset, 
(Woodstock). 

The territory of the jurisdiction of this tribe is not (defi- 
nitely) defined by early historians. Gookin, high authority, 
includes within the Nipmuck country, as it was called, ten vil- 
lages of Christianized Indians. Hassauamisset (Grafton), Man- 
chang (Oxford), Chabanakongkomun (Webster), Maanexit, 
Quantisset (Thompson Hill), Wabquasset (Woodstock), Quinsi- 
gamond (Worcester and Ward), Waentug (Uxbridge), We- 
shakin (Sterling and Kashua), near unto an English town 
called Lancaster and Quaboag or Qnabaug (Erookfield). 



^6 The Rixords of Oxford. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Sketch of John Eliot. 

Mr. Caverly, in liis Sketclie of the life of the distinguished 
Rev. John Ehot, relates (in the year 1631) when Mr. Eliot and 
his two brothers, Philip and Jacob, had resolved to leave Eng- 
land for a home in the Colonies, they made a visit to the tower 
of London to take leave of their uncle, Sir John Eliot, who was 
there imprisoned, being accused of uttering seditious speeches. 
" Hearing their approaching foot steps Sir John rising up turns 
himself as from a deep sleep, or from an absorbing reverie." 
After an exchange of friendly greetings, he pauses, listening 
to a brief delail of their designs for the future in leaving Eng- 
land for the New World. 

" An extended hand, a half suppressed adieu, and the brothers 
leave. ' The Knight sinks back on his couch, thoughtful, silent, 
at rest.' "* 

Rev. John Eliot of England, sailed in I^ovember, 1631, in 



*Sir John Eliot, born in 1590, was a member of Parliament from 
Newport, and afterwards representing Cornwall, was a leader in the 
House in the latter part of the reign of James I, and in the first part 
of Charles I. In May 29, 1628, Sir John was charged with having de- 
clared in the House, that the Council and Judges conspired to trample 
under their feet, the libertiesof the subject and the privileges of Parlia- 
ment. 

'* He, with others, was summoned before the King's Bench, which 
led to his imprisonment. Sir John died in the Tower Nov. 27, 1632. 
This event was announced throughout the realm as the death of a 
martyr. 

" The ancestor remote of the Rev. John Eliot, was Sir William d' Allot, 
who came with William the Conqueror in 1066, when he landed in Eng- 
land with a fleet of seven hundred ships. 

"Among the descendants was Augustus Eliot, honored as Lord Heath- 
field, and Sir Gilbert Eliot, Earl of Minto."— Life of Eliot by Caverly. 



Sketch of John Eliot. . 37 

"the Lyon," with Governor Winthrop's family and others, 
bound for Boston, in New England. The Governor, himself, 
was already there. Arrived at Boston, Elliot, afterward had 
charge of a church in Koxbury. Soon following, Eliot's own 
affianced bride and other Enghsh emigrants, left England for 
New England, and made a settlement at Roxbnry.— London 
Records of the New England Company. 

Rev. John Eliot was born in 1604, at Nasing, in Essex, and 
educated at Cambridge. Eliot resigned his charge of the 
church in Roxbnry in 1688, and died at the age of 86 in 1690, 
leaving his Indian work at Natick to be continued by one of 
the native Christian teachers. 

When Mr. Eliot conld no longer from declining years visit 
and instruct the Indians, he persuaded several families in Rox- 
bury to send their negro servants to him, that he might instruct 
them in the Christian faith. 

A Picture of the Home Life in the New World of Rev. 

John Eliot. 

"In 1650 Mr. Eliot received at his quiet humble cottage 
at Roxbnry, Father Druillettes, a Jesuit Missionary among 
the Indians in Canada, who had been sent by Governor 
d'Aillebout to the Governor of Plymouth and Massachusetts 
Colony to engage the English in commercial relations with a 
view to secure them in an aUiance against the Mohawk Indians, 
the enemies of the French. Father Druillettes has left a 
charming letter in French, describing his visit though not 
successful in his mission. Governor Endicot of Salem, treated 
him in a friendly way, and talked French with him. Governor 
Bradford of Plymouth invited him to dinner, and, ' it being on 
Friday entertained him with fish ! ' " 

The Father describes his visit to " Mr. Ileliot at Roxbnry, 
who, it being November, invited him to stay and thus defer 
his journey back to Canada through the wintry wilderness ; 



38 The Records of Oxford. 

but the priest could not remain." — Extract from Boston Me- 
morial History. 

One loves to think of Eliot's humble cottage as thus graced. 
His Indian interpreters might have been crouching by the 
cheerful chimney ; and one or more Indian youths, whom 
Eliot always had near him, might have looked on in wonder as 
the cassocked priest and the Puritan discussed the difficulties 
of the Indian tongue, in which both of them attained great 
skill, and accomplished their ministry as translators and 
preachers. 

Besides a wife and daughter, Mr. Eliot had five sons, all of 
whom he trained for Harvard College ; one of those died in his 
course, the other four became preachers. 

Mr. Eliot in his visits to the Katick Indians was not un- 
mindful of even the children, for *' he always supplied himself 
with apples, nuts, sweetmeats, and other little gifts for the 
papooses. 

" His own comfort and needs dropping out of thought in 
his care for others." 

He often carried on his Indian visits heavy and miscellaneous 
burdens. 

The cast-off clothing, and even much that had not come to 
that indignity, of his own parishioners and friends and the 
widest compass of neighbors, was solicited and generally was 
borne on his horse's shoulders or crupper to eke out the civil- 
ized array of his red pupils." 

Mb. Eliot's "Journeys " to the Indian Village of Natick. 

Mr. Eliot's rule was "to visit Natick once a fortnight, visit- 
ing in the alternate week Cutshamakin, in Dorchester, in all 
weathers, riding on his horse eighteen miles, by a way through 
woods, over hills, and swamps and streams, which his many 
journeys ultimately opened into a road from Boston to 
Natick." 



Sketch of John Eliot. 30 

A Letter from John Dunton to Rev. Dr. Samuel Anneslt, 

IN London. 

" In this Letter I design to give you an account of my Ram- 
ble to Natick. A town of converted Indians, it is (as I am 
informed) about foi'ty years since that the Great and Good Mr. 
Eliot, Pastor of the church in Roxbury (about a mile from 
Boston), set himself to learn the Indian Tongue, so tliat he 
might more easily and successfully open to them the Mystery 
of the Gospel. 'This Reverend Person, not without very 
great Labour and Pains translated tlie Bible into the Indian 
language (Twelve of wliich he lias presented me withal, charg- 
ing me to let you have one of them) ; he has also Translated 
several English Treatises, of Practical Divinity and Catechisms, 
into the Indian Toungue. Twenty-six years ago he gathered 
a church of converted Indians in a Town called JSTatick, being 

about twenty miles distant from Boston In this Town of 

JS'atick being the first formed town of the converted (or as 
they are called, Praying) Indians, there was appointed a Gen- 
eral Lecture to be annually kept, and the Lecture to be preached 
half in the Indian, and half in the English Tongue for the 
Benefit of all that did repair to it :* 

" To this Lecture (being kept in the Summer time) it is very 
usual for severall of the Bostonians (or inhabitants of Boston) 
to go ; and I being acquainted with some that intended to go 
thither, and being (you know Sir) of a Rambling Fancy, and 
still for making New Discoveries, as also I had a great desire 
to be among the Indians, resolved to take that opportuity, and 
go along with them .... 

" The Day of the Natick Lecture being come, and all things 
being ready for our Journey, I mounted on my steed with 
Madam Brick (Breck) (the Flower of Boston) behind me ac- 

*Jolm Dunton's Letters from New England, page 207. In the Publi- 
cations of the Prince Library. 



40 The Records of Oxford. 

companied with Mr. Green and his Wife, Mrs. Toy, the Dam- 
sel, Mr. Mallinson, Mr. King, and Mr. Cook and Mrs. Middle- 
ton ; with thirty or forty Persons more unknown, who went on 
the same Errand as we did, vide licet ^ to hear the Natick Ser- 
mon preached to the converted Indians, as is the usuall Custom 
every year. 

" Being thus equipp'd Sir, and my Companions such as I 
have mentioned .... we set forward for Natick the Indian Town, 
we set forward through many Woods whose well spread Branches 
made a pleasing sliade, and kept us from the Sun's too scorch- 
ing heat ; which made me say to my fair Fellow Traveller be- 
hind me, That we were much beholding to those woods for 
their refreshing Shade which they afforded us ; (of which we 
were then the more sensible, because we had but lately rid over 
some open Commons). 

" Madame Brick told me, what I said was very true ; But, 
added she, if these poor Woods afford us such a delightful 
shade, O what a blessed shade is Jesus Christ, who screens us 
from the Scorching Beams of Divine Wrath ; and whom the 
Scripture represents, with respect to his People, as the Shadow 
of a great Rock in a weary Land ; To signifie that Comfort 
and Refreshing that true Believers find in him ; ' Madam,' 
said I, you have spoke true in what you've said ; and yet Christ 
is represented as a Sun, as well as a Shade ; To this Mrs. Toy 
who rid by us reply'd. He is indeed represented both as a Sun 
and as a Shade, and yet no contradiction ; He is a Sun, shining 
with the Warm Beams of Love and Grace, to cherish and re- 
vive the Drooping Soul, and as a Shade for the Refreshment 
of the Weary and heavy laden, ' You are right,' said Mr. Green, 
who over-heard us ; Christ is set forth in Scripture, under sev- 
eral Denominations to represent to us that fulness that is in 
him, and to shew us that there is nothing we can want, but 'tis 
to be found in him : And such a Saviour (said his Wife) it is 
we stand in need of, that is an All sufficient Good, and ade- 



Sketch of John Eliot. 41 

quate to all our wants. And surely, said I, such a Saviour is 
only Jesus Christ ; He is the great Panpharmacon, who cures 
all our Diseases, and supplies all our Wants ; 

" If we want Kiches, he exhorts us to buy of him gold try'd 
in the Fire ; if we want cloathing, he has the only garment of 
Salvation ; if we are sick, he is the great Physician ; if we are 
wounded, he is the Balm of Gilead ; if we are hungry, he is 
the Bread of Life ; and if we are thirsty, he can give us Living 
Waters ; And when the Royal Psalmist would sum up all, in 
a few words, he tells us. He is both a Sun and Shield and will 
Grace and Glory, and no good thing will he withhold from 
them that walk uprightly." 

" I had scarce done speaking, when Mr. Cook rides up to me, 
and says, I thought we had been going to Natick to hear a 
Sermon there ; ' Why so we are,' said I, ' Why then,' said he, 
do you forestall the Market, and make a Sermon on the Road? 
I told him 'twas no Sermon, but only a discourse that happen 
to be rais'd among us ... . 

" Mr. Cook so rid on before to Water-Town, whither we 
all came presently after, and when we presently alighted and 
refresh' t our Luggage, and while others were engaged in Frothy 
Discourses, the Widow Brick and I took a view of the 
Town. 

" Having well refresh'd ourselves at Water-Town, we 
mounted again, and from thence we Rambled through severall 
Tall Woods between the Mountains, over many rich and preg- 
nant Valleys, as ever eye beheld, beset on each side with 
variety of goodly Trees. So, had the most Skilful Gardner 
design'd a Shady Walk in a fine Valley, it wou'd have fallen 
short of that which Nature here had done without him ; which 
is a clear Demonstration that Nature Exceeds Art, and that 
Art is but a weak and imperfect Imitation of Nature ; which 
has far more beauty in her Works, than Art can e'er pretend 
to ; Art may (for instance) delineate the Beauty of a Rose, and 
6 



42 The Records of Oxford. 

make it very lovely to the Eye, but Nature only gives it Life 
and Fragrancy 

"As we rid along that lovely valley I have mentioned Sir, 
we saw many lovely Lakes or Ponds well stored with Fish 

and Beavers (We had about Twenty Miles to Natick, 

where the best Accommodations we cou'd meet, were very 
course, We ty'd up our Horses in two old Barns that were 
almost laid in Ruines But there was no place where we cou'd 
bestow ourselves unless, upon the Green-sward, till the Lec- 
ture began. 

"The Wigwams or Indian Houses are no more than so many 
Tents, and their way of Building 'em is this : They first take 
long Poles, and make 'em fast in the ground, and then cover 
them with Mats on the outside, which they tye to the Poles, 
Their Fire place is made in the Middle, and they leave a little 
opening npon the Top uncovered with the Mats, which serves 
for a chimney. Their Doors are usually two, and made oppo- 
site to each other, which they open or shut according as the 
Wind sits, and these are either made of Mats or the Barks of 
Trees." — John Duntou's Letters from New England. 

"The men being most abominably slothful, and making their 
poor Squaws (for so they call their wives) do all their Drudg- 
ery, and Labour in the Field as well as at Home, planting and 
dressing their Corn and building also their Wigwams (or houses 
for tliem) .... They continue in a place until they have burnt 
up all the Wood there-a-bonts and then remove their Wigwams 
and follow that therefore Wood which they cann't fetch home 
to themselves ; And therefore thinking all others like them- 
selves ; They say English come hither because they wanted 
firing. 

" Their coats are made of divers sorts of Skins, whence they 
have their Deer-Skin Coats ; their Beaver-Coats ; their Otter- 
Coats, their Rakoon-Skin Coats and their Squirrel Skin Coats. 
They liave also a Coat or Mantle curiously made of the finest 



Sketch of John Eliot. 43 

and fairest feathers of their Turkies, which their old Men make, 
and is with them as velvet is with us in Esteem. Within this 
Coat or Skin they creep very contentedly, by day or night, in 
the House or in the Woods ; and sleep soundly too counting it 

a great happiness that every man is content with his skin 

They have also the skin of a. great Beast called Moose, as big as 
an Ox, which some call a red Deer, which they commonly paint 
for their Summer Wearing, witii variety of Forms and colours. 
" We went to visit their Indian Sachim and Queen ; I stepped 
up and kiss'd the Indian Queen, making her two very low 
Bows, which she returned very civilly. The Sachim was very 
tall and well limb'd, but had no Beard, and a sort of Horse 
Face. The Queen was well shap'd, and her Features might 
pass pretty well ; she had Eyes as black as Jet, and Teeth as 
white as Ivory ; her Hair was very black and long, and she was 
considerably up in years ; her Dress peculiar, she had Sleeves 
of Moose Skin, very finely dress'd and drawn with Lines of var- 
ious Colours in its Asiatick Work, and her Buskins were of the 
same sort ; her mantle was of fine blew cloath, but very short, 
and ty'd about her Shoulders and at the Middle with a Zone, 
curiously wrought with White and Blew Beads into pretty 
Figures ; her Bracelets and her Necklace were of the same sort 
of Beads, and she had a little Tablet upon her Breast very finely 
deckM with Jewels and Precious Stones ; her Hair was comb'd 
back and ty'd up with a Border, which was neatly work'd both 
with Gold and Silver. . . . 

"After we had been entertained by the (Indian) King and 
Queen, and left them. We were told that the meeting was near 
beginning, upon which Notice we went to the Meeting, where 
Mr. Gookins preached upon this Text : 

"'It is appointed unto Men once to dye, and after that, the 
Judgment.' The poor Indians appear'd to me to sit under the 
Word with great Seriousness and Attention, and many of them 
seem'd very much affected under it. . . . 



44 The Records of Oxford. 

"It was about Four in the Afternoon when the Lecture was 
ended, And we, having 20 long miles back to Boston, were 
making the best of our way, and therefore Mr. Mallinson, one 
of our Company, presently cry'd to Horse, to Horse, which we 
did accordingly in the same Order as we came .... After three 
hours hard Riding we got safe home to Boston." 

Sketch of Hobert Boyle. 

In 16i4: Robert Boyle returned from his travels on the con- 
tinent to England, and only after waiting four months, such 
was the confusion consequent upon the battle of Marston Moor, 
reached Stalbridge Manor, which he had inherited from his 
fathers estate ; he subsequently removed to Oxford and then 
to London, where he passed the remainder of his life. 

The political condition of England during Boyle's life was 
unfavorable to the repose of scholarship, as he was born during 
the reign of Charles I, lived during the Commonwealth and 
the turmoil of the Restoration, through the reigns of Charles II 
and James II, and died soon after the accession of William of 
Orano^e . * 



■*= Robert Boyle actively promoted tlie interests of the East India 
Company, being one of the directors of the company. 

He gave a handsome douceur for the translation of Grotius' Truth of 
the Christian Religion into Arabic, paid the expense of printing it at 
Oxford in 1660, and disseminated it widely amongst Arabic-speaking 
people. 

He paid £700 towards printing and circulating the Bible in the Irish 
dialect by Dr. Wm. Bodell, Bisliop of Kilmore, in Ireland, and contrib- 
uted largely towards another edition to be circulated among the Welsh 
and in the Highlands of Scotland. 

He contributed largely towards publishing Bishop Burnet's History of 
the Reformation. 

Extract from a letter from the London Propagation Society : 

''Sept 14, 1677. 
" To the Honorable Robert Boyle, Esq., one of the directors of the 



Sketch of Robert Boyle. 45 

Extract from the will of lion. Robert Bojle is dated the 
18th day of July, 1691, in the third year of the reign of our 
sovereign lord and lady William and Mary, by the grace of God 
King and Queen of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, de- 
fenders of the faith. The will was signed 25 July, 1691. 

"First and chiefly, I commend my soul- to Almighty God, 
my Creator, with full confidence of the pardon of all my sins 
in and through the mediation of my alone Saviour Jesus Christ ; 
and my body I commit to the earth, to be decently buried within 
the cities of London or Westminster, in case I die in England, 
without escutcheons or unnecessary pomp, and without any 
superfluous ceremonies, and without the exj^ense of above two 
hundred and fifty pounds. 

" Being likewise desirous when I come to die to have noth- 
ing to do but to die Christianlj^, without being hindered, by 
any avoidable distraction, from employing the last hours of my 
life in sending up my desires and meditations before me to 
heaven." 

One of the items as found in the will of Hon. Robert Boyle : 

"Whereas I had set apart, among other things, the sum of 
£400 for certain pious uses, and whereas his late Majesty King 
Charles the Second having, by his special grace and favour with- 
out my seeking or knowledge, been pleased to constitute me 
governor of the corporation for propagating the Gospel amongst 
the heathen natives of New England and other parts of America, 

East India Company for trade, and governor of the Corporation of tlie 
Gospel and the conversion of the American natives in New England. 

" Your charity is not limited only to the East Indies, for the poor souls 
of the West Indies are also bound to bless you, you being the head of 
that corporation which is established by his Majesty at London for the 
receiving and disposing of the benefactions of well-minded Christians (to 
which the said corporation do usually add of their own no small mites), 
to be transmited to the commissioners of the united colonies in New 
England, and thereto be employed for the propagation of the Gospel." — 
Life of Robert Boyle, London edition. 



46 The Records of Oxford. 

hath thereby given me opportunity to discern that work to be 
uoquestionably pious and charitable; and whereas I have given 
and paid the sum of three hundred pounds towards that piety, 
I do hereby give and devise the sum of one hundred pounds 
more to the said corporation (though, by reason of sickness and 
infirmity, I have resigned the otfice of governor), to be set 
aside and employed as a stock for the relief of the poor Indian 
converts, which 1 hope will prove of good effect for the ad- 
vancement of the pious work for which they are constituted, 
and which I heartily pray him, whose glory the work itself 
tends unto (and I hope the persons intrusted with it aim at), to 
give them a prosperous success." 

" From a fund arising under the ' will ' of the Hon. Robert 
Boyle, the first governor of the Company." 

" As re-established after the restoration. By virtue of his 
' will ' the Company in 1695 acquired a perpetual rent-charge 
of £90 a year for Missionaries to the natives of New 
England." 

•' The income of the funds subject to the Hon. Robert Boyle's 
Trust, is applicable to the following purpose : For tlie advance- 
ment of the Christian religion among infidels in divers parts of 
America under the Crown of the United Kingdom." 

In person the Hon. Robert Boyle was tall and slight in 
figure, of quiet manners, but of great elegance and dignity. 

He was unostentatious in all affairs of public or private life. 

Charles II, James II and William III were so charmed 
with his conversation that they often sought his society, admit- 
ted him to the palace with the slightest possible formality and 
discoursed with him with familiarity. 

These three sovereigns successively offered him a peerage, 
but all these honors he declined in his devotion to learning. 

He died December 31, 1691, aged 65 years ; his remains 
were laid in the chancel of St. Martin's in the Field, West- 
minster. The audience at his funeral included nearly all the 



Sketch of Robert Boyle. 47 

people of station, influence or learning in the Kingdom. Bishop 
Burnet preached his remarkable sermon from the words : " For 
God giveth to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and 
knowledge and joy." 

Bishop Burnet sums up his brilliant eulogium of his char- 
acter in the following strain : 

" I will not amuse you with a list of his astonishing knowl- 
edge, or of his great performances in this way. They are 
highly valued all the world over, and his name is everywhere 
mentioned with particular characters of respect."* 

*The family position of Hon. Robert Boyle may be of interest to the 
antiquary : He was the son of the Right Hon. Richard Boyle, the first 
Earl of Cork, in Ireland. " The Earl of Cork," who being born a pri- 
vate gentleman, and the younger brother of a younger brother, to no 
other inheritance than is expressed in the motto, which his humble 
gratitude inscribed upon all the palaces which he built, and indeed 
ordered to be i^laced ujjon his tomb. 

"God's Providence, mine Inheritance." By which Providence, and 
God's blessing upon his own prudent industry, he raised himself to such 
an honor and estate, and left such a family as never any subject in these 
three Kingdoms did, and (which is more) with so unspotted a reputa- 
tion of integrity, that the narrowest scrutiny could find nothing to ex- 
cejit against, in all tiie methods of his rising, though they were searched 
into most severely. 

"This noble Lord was blessed with an ample progeny, havino- five 
sons, whereof he lived to see four of them Lords, and Peers of the King- 
dom of Ireland, and the fifth (Robert) though not equal in titles, yet as 
truly famous, and honorable for his piety, parts and learning. He had 
also eight daughters, whereof the eldest, the Lady Alice, was married to 
the Lord Baramore; the second, the Lady Sarah, was married to the 
Lord Digby, of Ireland ; the third, the Lady Letitia, to the eldest son of 
the Lord Goring, who dyed Earl of Norwich ; the fourth, the Lady Joan, 
to the Earl of Kildare, Primier Earl of Ireland, and of the Antientest 
House in Christendom, of that degree, the present Earl being the sixth, 
or seventh and twentieth of lineal descent from the same." 

" (A great Antiquary hath observed, that the three Antientest Families 
in Europe for Nobility, are the Veres in England, Earls of Oxford, and 



48 The Reco7'ds of Oxford. 

CHAPTER Y. 

Philip's Wak. 

" Philip's War, 1G75-76, was very disastrous to the labors 
of Mr. Eliot, and almost entirely suspended them. The irrita- 
tion against the Indians was very great, and jealousy and dis- 
trust of his converts were everywhere rife, and the rage of the 
people was violent and alarming. 

" Mr. Gookin and Mr. Eliot incurred much abuse." — Mor- 
ton's N. E. Mem. 391. 



the Fitz-Geralds in Ireland, Earls of Kildare, and the Momorancies in 
France.) 

" The fifth, the Lady Katherine, was married to the Lord viscount 
Ranelaugh; the sixth, was the Lady Dorothy Loftus; the seventh, the 
Lady Mary, which sliut up and Crowned this Noble Train, was Married 
to Charles (Rich), Earl of Warwick, of whom it may be truly sayd : 
' Many Daughters, all his Daughters, did virtuously, but she surmounted 
them all.' 

' ' The eighth, the Lady Margaret died unmarried. 

The Earl of Cork states that " Being the second son of a younger 
brother, and it pleased the Almighty by his divine providence to take me, 
as it were, by the hand, and lead me into Ireland ; when I happily arrived 
at Dublin, on the Midsummer-eve, the 33d of June, 1588. 

"When I first arrived at Dublin in Ireland, all my wealth then, 
was twenty-seven pounds, three shillings in money, and two tokens 
which my mother had given me, viz. : a diamond ring, which I have 
ever since and still do wear, and a bracelet of gold worth about ten 
pounds ; a taffety doublet, cut with and upon taffety ; a pair of black 
velvet breeches laced; a new Milan fustian suit laced and cut upon 
taffety; two cloaks; competent linen and necessaries with my rapier, 
and dagger." 

The Earl of Cork married Catherine, the daughter of Sir Geoffrey 
Fenton. 



Philip's War. 49 

Extract from a Letter from Rev. John Eliot to Hon. 
Robert Boyle, after Philip's War. 

"RoxBURY, October 23, 1677. 

"Right honourable nursing father: 

" The poor praying Indians do thankfully acknowledge that 
(under God our heavenly father, and under Jesus Christ oar 
redeemer, who redeemeth us out of all our troubles) you have 
been the means and instrument in his hand, to save and de- 
liver us. God moved your heart to own us, in that black 
day when all were against us, and we were almost ready to be 
swallowed up in destruction ; which dark time we ought not 
to forget, nor your owning kindness unto us in that dark day. 
And since that, your charity hath greatly revived and refreshed 
us. Many of our aged, decrepid, fatherless, and widows, still 
wear the garments, not yet worn out, which your charity did 
the last winter, clothe us withal. And although we yet know 
not what our honoured commissioners will do for us, whose 
favour we doubt not of. 

" Nothwithstanding Philip had renewed a treaty of peace 
with the English in 1671, he appears to have been in a con- 
spiracy with the Indians against the English that there should 
be a general uprising of the Indians to destroy all the English 
plantations in the country. The Narragansett Indians having 
promised Philip to furnish him with four thousand fighting 
men in the spring of 1676, to aid in exterminating the English.* 



* One of the articles of Philip's Treaty with the English, 1671 : 

" I am willing and do promise to pay unto the government of Plim- 

outh, one hundred pounds in such things as I have ; But I would intreat 

the favor that I miglit have three years to pay it in, for as much as I 

cannot do it at present. 

" I do promise to send unto the Governor, or whom he shall appoint, 

five wolves heads, if I can get them ; or, as many as I can procure, until 

they come to five wolves yearly.'' 
7 



50 The Records of Oxford. 

" In 1671 Philip had been compelled by the English to de- 
liver up all the English arms in his tribe. The compulsion 
rankled sorely ; to the Indians it appeared an aggression as 
they had become acquainted with the use of English fire-arms, 
and being convinced of their superiority over bows and arrows, 
would give almost any amount in wampun, beaver skins, or 
even in land, in exchange for them," 

Though not an unprejudiced historian, Hubbard states : 

" It is apparent upon what terms the English stood with the 
Narragansetts, ever since the cutting off Miantonorao, their 
chief sachem's head by Uncas, it being done with the advice 
and consent of the English. Anno 1643." 

" A taste for havoc was established between heathen Wam- 
panoag and half converted Nipmuck. Without provocation, 
and without warning, they gave full sway to the inhuman pas- 
sions of their savage nature, and broke into a wild riot of pil- 
age, arson and massacre." — Palfrey, III, 159. 

In the summer of 1675, and in the autumn and winter fol- 
lowing, the Nipmuck Indians burned the towns of Brookfield, 
Lancaster, Mendon, and Worcester, which were the only Eng- 
lish settlements in the present Worcester county. 

Brookfield, the Indian name of which was Quaboag or 
Quabaug, originally included JS^orth and West Brookfield. 
This place was, for a long time, an isolated settlement be- 
tween the towns on the Connecticut river, viz., Agawam 
(Springfield), Hartford, Windsor and Weathei-sfield and the 
sea-board. It suffered severely by the assaults of the Indians. 
Brookfield was granted for a township in 1665. It was the 
nearest settlement to Marlborough. 

" At what is West Brookfield, near to the south-west end of 
Wekabaug* Pond, on a knoll below the junction of the waters 
of the pond with the Quaboag river, stood Mark's garrison." 



*" In the Indian language meaning Sweet Water." 



Philifs War. 51 

Mrs. Mark, being left alone, one day, discovered hostile 
Indians near the garrison, waiting for an opportunity of attack; 
she immediately put on her husband's wig, hat and great coat, 
and taking his gun went to the top of the fortification ; " march- 
ing backwards and forwards, and vociferating, like a vigilant 
sentinel, All's well! All's well ! " This ruse led the Indians to 
behave they could not take the place by surprise and they re- 
tired.* 

Meminimisset, now New Braintkee. 

On the westerly side of the town of Brookfield there is a 
large brook called Meminimisset brook, the name given to it by 
the Indians. On this brook there is a luxuriant meadow of 
several hundred acres called Meminimisset. When a hideous 
swamp, this was the headquarters of tlie Indians at the time 
when Brookfield was burnt by the Indians. The General 
Court of Massachusetts having granted six thousand acres of 
land to certain persons of the ancient town of Braintree, in the 
county of Suffolk, for services by them done to the public. It 
was called and known by the style of Braintree Farms. This 
tract of land, with a part of Brookfield and a part of Hardwick, 
was incorporated 1751 with the name of New Braintree.f 

The town of Lancaster goes far back into the history of 
Massachusetts ; it had been known to the English in 1643 as 

*The Indian proprietors of Quaboag, now Brookfield, had given to 
the Rev. John Eliot, late of Roxbury, clerk, deceased, '' a tract of land 
at a place known as ' Alum Ponds,' lying in the wilderness west of Brook- 
field, of one thousand acres, as a tribute of their affection for him.'' 
Date of the grant September 27, 1655. This grant was confirmed by the 
Legislature in 1715 to John Eliot, his grandson. 

fMeminimisset was known, in 1675, as the " chief Indian town of 
the Nipmuck Indians; " and also as the place where Capt. Edward 
Hutchinson, of Boston, was shot by the Indians in an effort to make a 
treaty with them and the English. Mrs. Rowlandson, of Lancaster, 
was taken by the Indians to this place while a cajitive. 



52 The Records of Oxford. 

the Indian tovrn of Nasbaway. It was incorporated as a town 
iu 1653. 

Sterling was for m'^ny years the second parish in Lancaster; 
in 1781 it became incorporated and received its present name. 

Gov. Wintlirop's History of New England dates the settle- 
ment of the Indian town of Nashaway, May, 1644, by the 
English, and refers to events preceding that time. 

The whole of the territory was in subjection to Sholan, or 
Shautnaw, Sachem of the Kashuays, and whose residence was 
at Waushacum,* now Sterling, then, a part of Lancaster.f Sho- 
lan occasionally visited Watertown for the purpose of trading 
with Mr. Thomas King wlio resided there. 

" He* recommended Nashawogg to King as a place weU 
suited for a plantation, and desired the English would come 
and set down by him." 

Stipulating not to molest the Indians in their hunting,'fish- 
ing or planting places. 

Mendon. 

" At a General Court holden in Boston, October 16, 1660, 
they judge meete and proper to grant a plantation." 

The deed from the Indians to the English is dated April 22, 
1662, witnessed by John Eliot, Sr. and John Eliot, Jr. 

Jan. 1, 1669, O. S. " Tlie town men chose the Colonell to be 
returned to the Courte to gain power to take the verdict of ye 
jury upon ye death of John Lovett — to marry — and to give 
the present constable his oath." 

These powers were conferred upon Colonel Crowne at a 
General Court at Boston, May, 1669, O. S. 

The English who made a settlement in Mendon were from 
Brain tree and Weymouth. 

With the distinguished names of Atherton and Crowne, are 

* Sometimes spelled Weshakim. f History of Lancaster. 



Philip's War. 53 

found Abraham Staples (gentleman), Ferdinando Thayer, 
Daniel Lovett and others. 

The Indian name of the town of Mendon was Nipmug. 

In the first settlement of the town by the English, there 
were four gentlemen elected by the Conrt, called the commit- 
tee for Nipmng, Major Humphrey Atherton and three others 
and " only three of them shall be and are hereby impowered to 
make a valid act there." 

May 15, 1667, the plantation of ISTipmug which was now 
called Quinshepange was incorporated by the name of Mendon, 
Suffolk county. 

Expedition of the English into the Narragansett 
Country. 

In the autumn of 1675 it appeared to the English that the 
Indians had withdrawn themselves into their winter quarters ; 
some to the Dutch river (Hudson); others to the Narragansett 
fort.-^ 

The English were persuaded that there should be an imme- 
diate attack where so many of the ^arragansett Indians were 

Settlement of Worcester.— A tract of land eight miles square was 
purchased of the Indians for twelve pounds lawful money. The deed 
bears date July 13, 1674. 

Dec. 2, 1675, Increase Mather writes: 

" This day all the houses in Quonsukamuck (Worcester) were burnt by 
the Indians." 

The buildings had been previously deserted by the inhabitants through 
fear of an Indian attack. 

A second attempt to make an English settlement at Quinsigamond 
(Worcester) was undertaken in 1683, and the name of Worcester given 
to the settlement in 1684, from a petition of Major Daniel Gookin and 
others. 

In 1694 the settlement was abandoned. 

In 1713 a permanent settlement was made in Worcester by the English. 

* The fort of the Narragansetts was in South Kingston, R. I. 



54 The Records of Oxford. 

gathered together, for if not attacked they would join Philip 
in the spring, in exterminating the English throughout the 
country. 

When the soldiers were mustered into service on Dedham 
Plain against the !Narragansett Indians, in what was called the 
" Narragansett fight," they were told by authority of govern- 
ment, 

" That if they ' played the man,' took the fort, and drove the 
enemy from the Narragansett country, they should have a 
gratuity of land, besides their wages," 

The ancestors of the following families of Oxford were en- 
gaged in the taking of the Narragansett Fort, viz.: 

Peter Shumwaj^ of Topsfield, Mass. ; Lieut. Isaac Learned, 
Framingham, Mass. ; Stephen Butler of Boston, Mass., and the 
descendants of Major Bradford of Plymouth, Mass. 

Description of the Nakraganseit Fort, as Given by 

Hubbard. 

" The fort was raised upon a kind of island of five or six acres 
of rising land in the midst of a swamp ; the sides of it were made 
of pallisadoes, set upright, which was compassed about with an 
hedge of almost a rod thickness, through which there was no 
passing, unless they would have fired a way through, which 
then they had no time to do. The place where the Indians used 
ordinarily to enter themselves, was upon a long tree over a place 
of water, where but one man could enter at a time, and which 
was so waylaid that they would have been cut off that had 
ventured there ; but at one corner there was a cap made up 
only with a long tree, about four or five feet from the ground, 
over which men might easily pass, but they had placed a kind 
of a block-house right over against the said tree, from thence 
they sorely galled our men that first entered, some being shot 
dead upon the tree, and some as soon as they entered." 

The Narragansetts having been driven out of their country, 



Philifs War. 55 

fled through the Nipnet plantations toward Wachuset hills, 
meeting with all the Indians that had harbored daring the win- 
ter in those woods about Nashua ; they all combined against 
the English to exterminate them. 

Philip was not discovered when the fort was taken by the 
English, and yet soon afterward he was at Lancaster when the 
attack was made upon that place by the Indians. It is supposed 
he was concealed in the Narragansett country. 

At the outbreak of the Narragansett war in 1675, the Nip- 
muck Indians joined King Philip, and after Ms defeat in his 
own country, the lands about the Wachusetts became one of 
the head-quarters of his followers, where he was frequently 
present. 

Although some of them had received the Christian instruction 
of Eliot and Gookin, they made the disastrous attack upon 
Lancaster. 

It was on February 10, 1675, O. S., that the Indians made 
a descent upon Lancaster with 1,500 warriors, and massacred 
or carried into captivity the inhabitants. Early in the morning 
the Wampanoags under Philip, accompanied by the Narragan- 
setts, his allies, and the Nipmucks whom Philip had persuaded 
to join with him, made this attack upon Lancaster, joined by 
the* Nashawajs under Sagamore Sam. The Indians directed 
their course to the home of Master Joseph Rowlandson, the 
minister of Lancaster ; the house was defended as a garrison, 
it was filled with soldiers and inhabitants to the number of 
from forty to fifty. Mr. Rowlandson himself was absent from 
home, being in Boston to request Governor Leverett and Coun- 
cil to give the town of Lancaster military aid. 

" The enemy after several unsuccessful attempts to set fire 
to the building, filled a cart with combustible matter and ap- 
proached in the rear." 

Hubbard relates, " The fortification was on the back side of 
the house, being closed up with fire- wood. The Indians reached 



56 The Records of Oxford. 

so near as to fire a leanter (leanto), and in this way soon the 
whole house was enveloped in flames, and the inhabitants find- 
ing further resistance useless were compelled to surrender to 
avoid perishing in the ruins." 

The story of Mrs. Rowlandson's captivity must be read in 
her " Inimitable Removes," as the narrative presents scenery 
and pictures of Indian life that cannot elsewhere be found. 

Mrs. Rowlandson narrates : "At length they came and beset 
our own house, and quickly it was the dolefullest day that ever 
my eyes saw. The house stood upon the edge of a hill ; some 
of the Indians got behind the hill, others in the barn, and 
others behind any thing that could shelter them ; from all of 
which places they shot against the house, so that the bullets 
seemed to fly like hail, and quickly they wounded one man 
among us, then another, and then a third. About two hours 
(according to my observation in that amazing time) they had 
been about the house before they prevailed to fire it (which 
they did with flax and hemp, which they brought out of the 
barn, and there being no defence about the house, only two 
flankers at two opposite corners, and one of them not finished) 
they fired it once and one ventured out and quenched it, but 
they quickly fired it again, and that took. Now is that dread- 
ful hour come, that I have often heard of (in the time of the 
war, as it was the case of others), but now mine eyes see it. 
Some in our house were fighting for their lives, others wallow- 
ing in their blood, the house on fire over our heads, and the 
bloody heathen ready to knock us on the head if we stirred 
out. Now might we hear mothers and children crying out for 
themselves and one another. Lord what shall we do ! 

" Then I took my children to go forth and leave the house, 
but as soon as we came to the door and appeared, the Indians 
shot so thick that the bullets rattled against the house as if one 
had taken a handful of stones and threw them, so that we were 
forced to give back. We had six stout dogs belonging to our 



Philip's War. 57 

garrison, but none of them would stir, though another tn-ne,if 
an Indian had come to the door thej were ready to % upon 
him and tear him down . 

Mrs. Rowlandson was shot through the side and the same 
bullet wounded her child of six years old. 

" The Indians laid hold of us pulling me one way, and the 
children another, and said come go along with us, I told them 
they would kill me ; they answered if I were willing to go 

along with them they would not hurt me 

" Now we must go with those barbarous creatures with our 
bodies wounded and bleeding, and our hearts no less than our 
bodies ; about a mile we went that night, up upon a hill within 
sight of the town, where they intended to lodge. 

"There was hard by a vacant house deserted by the English 
before, for fear of the Indians, I asked them whether I might 
not lodge in that house that night ? To which they answered, 
what will you love Englishmen still ? 

" This was the dolef ullest night that ever my eyes saw." 
Mrs. Rowlandson is now a captive of the Indians, is treading 
her way through the thickets of trackless forest in the midst of 
winter, with no comforts to supply her necessities and nothing 
but the unmingled fear of a hopeless captivity in the future. 

"The next morning one of the Indians carried my poor 
wounded (child) upoij a horse; it went moaning all along, I 
shall die, I shall die ; I went on foot after it, with sorrow that 
cannot be expressed. 

" At length I took it off the horse, and carried it in my arms, 
till my strength failed and I fell down with it. Tiiey then sot 

me upon a horse with my wounded child , and there being 

no furniture upon the horse's back, as we were going down a 
steep hill, we both fell over the horse's head, at whirli they like 
inhuman creatures laughed and rejoiced to see it, though I 
thought we should there have ended our days as overcome with 

so many difficulties After this it quickly began to snow, 

8 



58 The Records of Oxford. 

and when night came on, they stopped; and now down I must 
sit in the snow, by a little fire, and a few boughs behind me 
with my sick child . . . . , and (8he)'calling much for water, being 
through the wound fallen into a violent fever. 

" The morning being come they proposed to go on their way; 
one of the Indians got up upon a horse, and they set me up 
behind him, with my poor sick child .... A very wearisome 
tedious day I had of it ; what with my own wound, and my 
child being so exceeding sick, and in a lamentable condition 
with her wound, it might easily be judged what a poor feeble 
condition we were in, there being not the least crumb of refresh- 
ing that came within either of our mouths from Wednesday 
night to Saturday night, except only a little cold water. 

" This day in the afternoon, about an hour by sun, they came 
to the place where they intended, viz. : an Indian town called 
Meminimisset (New Braintree), northward of Quaboag (Brook- 
field). 

" The next day was the Sabbath. I sat much alone with my 
poor wounded child, which moaned night and day, having 
nothing to revive the body or cheer the spirits of her ; but in- 
stead of that, one Indian would come and tell me one hour, 
and your master will knock your child on the head, and then a 
second, and then a third, your master will quickly knock your 
child on the head. This was the comfort I had from them ; 
miserable comforters were they all. 

" Thus nine days I sat. My child being ready to depart this 
sorrowful world, they bid me carry it out to another wigwam. 
(I suppose because they would not be troubled with such spec- 
tacles.) 

" About two hours m the night, my sweet (child), like a lamb, 
departed this life on February 18, 1675. It being about six 
years and five months old .... In the morning, when they under- 
stood that m}"^ child was dead, they sent for me to my master's 
wigwam. (By my master in this writing must be understood 
Qunnaopin, who was a Sagamore, and married K. Philip's 



Philip's War. 50 

wife's sister ; not that he lirst took ine, but I was sold to him 
by a Narraganset Indian, who took me when I first came out 
of the garrison.) I went to take up my dead child in my arms 
to carry it with ine, but they bid me let it alone. There was 
no resisting, but go I must and leave it. When 1 had been 
awhile at my master's wigwam, I took the first opportunity I 
could get to go look after my dear child. 

" When I came, 1 asked them what they had done with it ? 
They told me it was upon the hill ; then they went and showed 
me where it was where I saw the ground was newly digged 
and where they told me they had buried it. There I left that 
child in the wilderness. . . . 

" I went to see my daughter Mary, who was at this same 
Indian town, at a wigwam not very far off, though we had but 
little liberty or opportunity to see one another. She was about 
ten years old, and taken from the door at first by a praying 
Indian, and afterward sold for a gun. When I came in sight, 
she would fall a weeping, at which they were provoked and 
would not let me come near her, but bid me begone, which was 
a heart-cutting word to me. I had one child dead, another in 
the wilderness, I knew not where ; the third they would not let 
me come near to. ... * 

" For as I was going up and down mourning and lamenting 
my condition, my son came to me, and asked me how I did. I 
had not seen him before since tlie destruction of the town, and 
I knew not where he was till I was informed by himself that he 
was amongst a smaller parcel of Indians, whose place was about 
six miles off. With tears in his eyes, he asked me whether 
his sister Sarah was dead, and told me he had seen his sister 
Mary, and prayed me I would not be troubled in reference 
to himself .... 

" In time of his master's absence to burn and assault Med- 
field, his dame brought him to see me. 

* She parted with Mary; saw her no more until she was restored to her 
in Dorchester after her captivity. 



6o TJie Records of Oxford. 

" The next day the Indians returned from Medfield (all the 
company), for those that belonged to the smaller company came 
through the town that now we were at ; but before they came 
to us, oh the outrageous roaring and hooping that there was! 
They began their din about a mile before they came to us; by 
their noise they signified how many they had destroyed (which 
was at that time twenty-three) ; those that were with us at home 
were gatliered together as soon as they heard the whooping, and 
every time the other went over their number those at home 
gave a shout that the very earth rang again, and thus they con- 
tinued until those that had been upon the expedition were come 
to the Saggamore's wigwam. And then, oh the hideous, insult- 
ing and triumphing there was over some Englishmen's scalps 
that they had taken and brought with them as their manner is. 

" The Indians now began to talk of removing from this place, 
some one way and some another." 

Hubbard states that ten days after the attack upon Lancas- 
ter " the Indians were so flushed with this success, that two or 
three hundred of them came wheeling down to Medfield, 
and tliey burnt near one-half of the town, killing about twenty 
persons."— Hubbard's "Indian Wars," p. 168. 

Mr. Hubbard states with great crednhty, " The week before 
this disaster was heard a very hideous cry of a kennel of wolves 
round the town, which raised some of the inhabitants, and was 
looked upon by divers persons as an ominous presaging of the 
following calamity." 

" In 1G76, this 26th day of March, being the first day of the 
week, as the first of the year after our Julian account, seemed 
ominous at the first, on sundry accounts, threatening a gloomy 
time, yet proved in the issue, but as a lowering morning before 
a lightsome day."* 



*February 21, 1676. lu the attack upon Medfield, "Philip had been 
seen by the inhabitants riding upon a black horse, leaping over fences, 
exulting in the havoc he was making. 



Philip's War. 6i 

Mrs. Eowlandson while in captivity, continuing her narra- 
tive '' upon the Sabbath days I could look upon the scene, and 
think how people were going to the house of God to have their 
souls refreshed, and their homes and their bodies also. I re- 
member how, on the night before and after the Sabbath, when 
my family were about me, and relations and neighbors with us, 
we could pray and sing, and refresh ourselves with the good 
creatures of God." 

Some of the Indians, with the master and mistress of Mrs. 
Eowlandson pursued their way through the forest toward 
Northampton. Mrs. Eowlandson narrates " I carried only my 
knitting work, and two quarts of parched corn. Being very 
faint I asked my mistress to give me one spoonful of meal, but 
she would not give me a taste ; I was at this time knitting a 
pair of white cotton stockings for my mistress. 

" On the morrow we must go over Connecticut river to meet 
with King Philip. In this travel up the river, as I sat among 
them musing on things past, my son Joseph unexpectedly came 
to me ; we asked of eacii other's welfare, bemoaning our dole- 
ful condition. 

" We travelled all night, and in the morning we must go over 
the river to Philip's crew. I fell a weeping; then one of 
them asked me why I wept; I could hardly tell what to say, 
yet I answered, tliey would kill me. No, said he, none will 
hurt you. Then came one of them, and gave me two spoonfuls 
of meal (to comfort me), and another gave me half a pint of 

pease. 

" Then I went to see King Philip, he bid me come in and sit 
down, and asked me whether I would smoke it. 

" Now the Indians gather their Forces to go against North- 
ampton ; over night one went about yelling and hooting to 
give notice of the design. Whereupon they went to boihng of 
ground nuts and parching of corn (as many as had it) for their 
provision, and in the morning away they went. 



62 The Records of Oxford. 

"During my abode in this place Philip spake to me to make 
a shirt for his boy, which I did, for which he gave me a shill- 
ing. I offered the money to my master, but he bid me keep 
it, and with it I bought a piece of horse flesh. Afterward he 
asked me to make a cap for his boy for which he invited me 
to dinner. 1 went and he gave me a pan cake about as big as 
two fingers ; it was made of parched wheat, beaten and fryed 
in bear's grease, but I thought I never tasted pleasanter meat 
in my life. 

" There was a squaw who spoke to'me to make a shirt for her 
sannup for which she gave me a piece of bear another asked 
me to knit her a pair of stockings for which she gave me a 
quart of pease. I boiled my pease and bear together, and in- 
vited my master and mistress to dinner ; but the proud gossip, 
because I served them both in one dish would eat nothing, ex- 
cept one bit he gave her upon the point of his knife. 

" The Indians returning from Northampton brought with 
them horses and sheep. I desired them that they would carry 
me to Albany upon one of those horses and sell me for powder, 
for so they had sometimes discoursed, but instead of going to 
Albany or homeward we must go five miles up the river and 
then go over it. 

" When we were at this place my master's maid came home, 
she had been gone three weeks into the Narragansett country 
to fetch corn where they had stored up some in the ground. 

" She brought home about a peck and a half of corn — this 
was about the time that their great Captain Naananto was 
killed in the Narragansett country.* 

" My son being about a mile from me 1 asked liberty to go 
and see him ; they bid me go and away I went. 

* An attack was made on Northampton, March 14. — Hubbard's 
"Indian Wars." 

Naauanto (Nanuntteuoo) alias Canonchet. 

The chief Sachems usually changing their names at every great dance. 
— Hubbard, page 82. 



Philifs War. 63 

"And going among the wigwams I went into one and there 
found a sqnaw — showed herself very kind to me, and gave 

me a piece of bear In the morning I went again to the 

same squaw, who had a kettle of ground nuts boiling ; I asked 
her to let me boil my piece of bear in her kettle, which she 
did and gave me some ground nuts to eat with it. Sometimes 
I met with favor and sometimes with nothing but frowns. 

" I asked my master if he would sell me to my husband, he 
answered nux, which did rejoice my spirit. Instead of going 
toward the bay (which was what I desired) I must go with 
them five or six miles down the river. Here one asked me to 
make a shirt for lier papoos, for which she gave me a mess of 
broth, which was thickened with meal made of the bark of a 
tree, and to make it better she had put into it about a handful 
of pease and a few roasted ground nuts. 

" About this time they came yelping from Hadley and brought 
a captive with them, viz. Thomas Read, I asked him about 
the welfare of my husband, he told me he saw him such a time 
in the bay and he was well but very melancholy. 

"My son came and told me; he had a new master; he was 
carried away and I never saw him afterward till I saw him at 
Piscataqua in Portsmouth. 

" My mistress' papoos was sick and died, I went to a wigwam, 
they gave me a skin to lye upon, and a mess of venison and 
ground nuts, which was a choice dish among them. 

" On the morrow they buried the papoos, and afterward, both 
morning and evening, there came a company to mourn and 
howl with her. 

" Many sorrowful eyes I had in this place ; now must we pack 
up and begone from this thicket, bending our course toward the 
bay towns. 

" We began this remove by wading over a river. Then I 
sat down to put on my stockings and shoes, with the tears 
running down my eyes and many sorrowful thoughts in my 



64 The Records of Oxford. 

heart. But I got up to go along with them. Quickly there 
came up to us an Indian, who informed them that I must go 
to Wachuset to ray master, for there was a letter come from 
the council to the Sagamores about redeeming the captives. 

" At last after many weary steps, I saw Wachuset hills, but 
many miles off. Philip (who was in the cotnpany) came up and 
took me by the hand and said two weeks more and you shall 
be mistress again, I asked him if he spoke true ? He answered 
yes, and quickly you shall come to your master again, who had 
been gone from us three weeks. After many weary steps we 
came to Wachuset where he was, and glad was I to see him. 
He asked me when I washed me, I told him not this month ; 
then he fetched some water himself and bid me wash, and gave 
me the glass to see how I looked and bid his squaw give me 
something to eat. So she gave me a mess of beans and meat, 
and a little ground nut cake. I was wonderfully revived with 
this favor showed me. 

" My master had three squaws, living sometimes with one and 
sometimes with another ; one, tiiis old squaw, at whose wigwam 
I was and with whom my master had been these three weeks ; 
another was Wettimore, with whom I had lived and served all 
this while. A severe and proud dame she was, bestowing every 
day in dressing herself, near as much time as any of the gentry 
of the land. Powdering her hair and painting her face, going 
with her necklaces, with jewels in her ears and bracelets upon 
her hands. When she had dressed herself, her work was to 
make girdles of wampum and beads. 

" The third squaw was a younger one, by whom he had two 
papooses. 

"By that time 1 was refreshed by the old squaw, Wettimore's 
maid came to call me home, at which I fell a weeping. Then 
the old squaw told me, to encourage me, that when I wanted 
victuals that I should come to her and lye in her wigwam. 



Philip's War. 65 

Then I went with the maid, and quickly I came back and 
lodged there .... 

" The squaw laid a mat under me and a good rug over me, 
the first time I had any such kindness showed me. I under- 
stood that Wettimore thought that if she should let me go and 
serve with the old squaw she should be in danger not only to 
lose my service, but tiie redemption pay also. There came an 
Indian and asked me to knit him three pairs of stockings for 
which Lhad a hat and a silk handkerchief. 

" Then came Tom and Peter with the second letter from the 
Counsel about the captives, though they were Indians I got 
them by the hand and burst out into tears. When the letter was 
come, the Sagamores met to consult about the captives and 
called me to them to enquire how mucli my husband would 
give to redeem me. When I came I sat down among them as 
I was wont to do, as their manner is ; then they bid me stand 

up, and said they were the General Court At a venture 

I said twenty pounds, yet desired them to take less, but they 
would not hear of that, but sent that message to Boston, that 
for twenty pounds I should be redeemed." 

"An attack was made by the Indians upon the town of Marl- 
borough, the most part of which was destroyed March 26. 
The Indians burnt the deserted houses at Marlborough, x\pril 
17-March 21, the next day they set upon Sudbury."— Hub- 
bard's Indian Wars.* 

*It is said, " Mrs. Rowlandsou was at Wachusett when the Indians 
returned frona Marlborough, and witnessed their grand pow wow, pre- 
paratory to attacking Sudbury, as well as their rejoicing on returning 
from that slaughter of the English." 

It is said that " Wachusett " was at this time the " headquarters " of 
the hostile Indians as not only appears from Mrs. Rowlandson's narra- 
tive, but from those of Hubbard and Mather. Tlie letters of Capt. 
Henchman, in command of the colony forces, and official communica- 
tions from the General Court, May 3, 1676. It sent Seth Perry as its 
9 



66 The Records of Oxford. 

"And so they ended their business and went to Sudbury 
fight. When my master came home he came to me and bid 
me make a shirt for his papoos of a Holland laced pillow beer. 
A squaw gave me a piece of fresh pork and a little salt with 
it, and lent me her frying pan to fry it, and I cannot but re- 
member what a sweet pleasant and delightful relish that bit 
had to me to this day. 

" It was their usual way to remove when they had done any 
mischief. We went about three or four miles and then built 
a great wigwam big enough to hold an hundred Indians which 
they did in preparation for a gi-eat day of dancing. They 
would now say among themselves that the governor would be so 
angry for his loss at Sudbury that he would send no more 
about the captives, and not stir. 

" Then they catched up their guns and away they ran as if 
an enemy had been at hand and the guns went off apace. 

" I manifested some great trouble and they asked me what 
was the matter. I told them I thought they had killed the 
Englishman (for they had in the meantime told me an English- 
man was come). They said no ; they shot over his horse and 
under and before his horse, and they pushed him this way and 
that way at tiieir pleasui-e, showing what they could do. Then 
they let them come to their wigwams. I begged of them to 
let me see the Englishman, but they would not, but then when 
they had talked their full with him they suffered me to go to 
him. We asked each other of our welfare and how my husband 
did and all my friends ; he told me they were all well and 

" messenger to the Sachems of Wachuset, with a letter addressed to the 
Sagamores about Watchusetts, Philip, John, Sam, Waskaken, Old Queen 
and Pomham," all leading sachems. 

' 'A praying Indian was at Sudbury fight, though, as he deserved, he 
was afterward hanged for it, his squaw with him witli her papoos on her 
back. There was another praying Indian so wicked and cruel as to 
wear a string about his neck strung with Christians' fingers." 



Philip's War. 67 

would be glad to see me. Among other things which my hus- 
band sent me, there came a pound of tobacco which I sold for 
nine shillings in money. For many of them for want of 
tobacco smoked hemlock and ground ivy.'' 

Extracts from Mrs. Rowlandson's Removes. 

After Mrs. Rowlandson's capture she was taken to Wachu- 
sett mountain and by successive " Removes " through the 
wilderness to Northtield on the Connecticut, above Deerfield.* 
" After many weary steps," returning from her wilderness — 
winter wanderings, Mrs. Rowlandson states, "we came to 
Wachusett," as they approached it through a great swamp, up 
to their knees in mud and water, she says, " going along, hav- 
ing, indeed, my life, but little spirit, Fhihp (who was in the 
company) came up and took me by the hand and said ' two 
weeks more and you shall be mistress again.' I asked him if 
he spoke true ; he answered 'yes, and quickly you shall come 
to your master again.' " 

Mrs. Rowlandson remained at Wachusett, until released. 

Not only was King Philip with her captors, but several 
others of the leading Sagamores, and among them, Quannapin, 
the master of Mrs. Rowlandson, and his wife, the celebrated 
" Swaw Sachem," " Metamoo," " Queen of Pocasset."t 

" On a Sabbath day the sun being about an hour higii in the 
afternoon, came Mr. John Hoar (the council permitting him, 
and his own forward spirit inclining him) with the two fore- 
mentioned Indians, Tom and Peter, with the third letter from 
the council. When they came near I was abroad ; they pres- 
ently calhng me in, and bid me sit down and not stir." He at 

*One account states "Mrs. Rowlandson was taken as far as Brattle- 
borough, or beyond in the forest." 

t" Metamoo was next unto Philip iu respect to the mischief that 

hath been done and the blood that hath been shed in this warr." 

Cotton Mather. 



68 The Records of Oxford. 

once opened negotiations for Mrs. Rowlandson's release, the 
narrative continues : 

"In the morning Mr. Hoar invited the Saggamores to din- 
ner, but wlien we went to get it ready he found they had stolen 
the greatest part of the provisions Mr. Hoar had brought. 

" Mr. Hoar called them betime to dinner, but they ate but 
little, they being so busy in dressing themselves and getting 
ready for their dance which was carried on by eight of them, 
four men and four squaws ; ray master and mistress being two. 
He was dressed in his holland shirt, with great laces sewed at 
the end of it ; he had six silver buttons; his white stockings, 
his garters hung round with shillings, and had girdles with 
wampum upon his head and shoulders. She had a Kersey 
coat covei-ed with girdles of wampum from the loins upward. 
Her arms from her elbows to her hands were covered with 
bracelets ; there were handfuls of necklaces about her neck and 
several sorts of iewels in her ears. She had fine red stockiuirs, 
and white shoes; her hair powdered, and her face painted red, 
that was always before black. And all of the dancers were after 
the same manner. There were two others sinmno^ and knock- 
ing on a kettle for their music. 

" On Tuesday morning they called their General Court (as 
they stiled it), to consult and determine whether I should go 
home or no. And they all seemingly consented that I should 
go, except Philip, who would not come among them. 

" Philip called me to him and asked me what I would give 
him to tell me some good news and to speak a good word for 
me that I might go home to-morrow. 1 told him I could not 
tell what to give him ; I would any thing I had, and asked him 
what he would have. He said, two coats and twenty shillings 
in money, and half a bushel of seed corn and some tobacco. 
I thanked him for his love, but I knew that good news as well 
as that craftv fox." 



Philip's War. 69 

On the 30tli of April, O. S., Mrs. Rowlandson was released 
to Mr. Hoar. 

Mrs. Rowlandson's house at Lancaster, was pleasantly situ- 
ated on the brow or (eminence) of a small hill commanding a 
fine landscape view of a lovely valley with a gentle river, and 
the amphitheatre of the hills to the west, north and east ; it 
was about one-third of a mile sonth-west of the church. 

The cellar on the side of the house was tilled up about the 
commencement of the present century, at this time also " where 
the garden once was," a number of very aged trees, more or 
less decayed, dating far back in the past to the home of Mrs . 
Rowlandsou. 

Hubbard states : — " Mrs. Rowlandson being brought to Bos- 
ton on the election day, May 3d, it was generally looked upon 
as a smile of Providence, and doubtless was a return of prayer 
and answer of faith, with which Mr. Rowlandson had been 
upheld and supported from the day of her captivity ; his two 
children, a son and a daughter, were returned to them from 
their captivity. It is said Mrs. Rowlandson was redeemed for 
£20. 

"Mr. and Mrs. Rowlandson now resided in Charleston and 
Boston, till May, 1677. Tiiey removed to Weathersfield, Ct. 
Mr. Rowlandson died before Lancaster was i-esettled. 

" He had commenced preaching in Lancaster in 1654, became 
established as the clergyman in 1658-1660, and was the minis- 
ter of the town until it was destroyed in Philip's war, 10th of 
February, 1676. 

"Mr. Rowlandson, it is said, was celebrated for his powers 
of entertainment, 'so merry and facete,' that he was the life 
of company and the great wit of his day." 

Mrs. Rowlandson narrates that the South church in Boston, 
hired a house for (us,) and that we received gifts from friends 
and from England, ' that in a little time we might see the 
house furnished with love.' " 



70 The Records of Oxford. 



CHAPTER VI. 

EXTKACTS FKOM THE NARRATIVE OF CoL. ChUROH OF " PhILIp's 

War." 

" I was beginning a plantation at a place called by the In- 
dians Sogkonate, and since by the English Little Compton, I 
was the first Englishman that built upon that neck, which was 
full of Indians. My head and hands were full about settling a 
new plantation where nothing was brought; to no preparation 
of dwelling-house, or out-houses, or farming made, horses and 
cattle were to ])e provided, ground to be cleared and broken up ; 
and the utmost caution to be used, to keep myself free from 
offending my Indian neighbours all around about me."* 

In 1675 Philip's war commenced, and Philip the great 
sachem of Mount Hope was sending his messengers to all the 
neighbouring sachems, to engage them in a confederacy with 
him in a war against the English. 

Among others, Philip sent six men to Aswonhoks, Squaw 
Sachem of the Sogkonate Indians, to engage her in his interest. 
" Aswonhoks so far listened unto them, as to call her subjects 
together ; to make a great dance, which is the custom of that 
nation when they advise about momentous aflfairs. But what 
does Aswonhoks do, but sends away two of her men that well 
understood the English language (Sassaman and George by 
name) to invite Mr. Church to the dance, Mr. Church upon the 
invitation, immediately takes with him Charles Hazelton, his 
tenant's son, who well understood the Indian language and 
went to the place appointed, where they found an hundred of 
Indians gathered together from all parts of her dominions." 

*In 1674 Mr. Church had purchased of the company some of the 
court grant rights, and made a settlement in that portion of Plymouth 
colony next to Rhode Island. 



Colonel CJiurcJCs Narrative. 71 

Aswonhoks herself, was leading the dance, but she was no 
sooner sensible of Mr. Church's arrival than she orders him to 
be invited into her presence; *'she told him King Philip had 
sent six men of his with two of her people, who had been over 
at Mount Hope to draw her into a confederacy with him in a 
war with the English, desiring him to give her his advice in 
the case, and to tell her the truth, whether the Umpame men 
(as Philip had told her) were gathering a great army to invade 
Philip's country." He assured her he would tell her the truth, 
and give her his best advice ; then he told her it was but a few 
days since he came from Plymouth, and the English were then 
making no preparation for war, that he was in company with the 
principal gentlemen of the government, who had no discourse 
at all about war and he believed no thought about it. He 
asked her whether she thought he would have brought up his 
goods to settle in that place, if he apprehended entering into 
war with so near a neighbor; she seemed to be somewhat 
convinced by his talk, and she said she believed he spoke the 
truth. 

Then she called for the Mount Hope men, who made a 
formidable appearance, with their faces painted and their hair 
turned up in comb fashion, with their powder horns and shot 
bags at their backs ; which among that nation is the posture 
and figure of preparedness for war, and then told them what 
Mr. Church had said in answer to it. They were furious 
against the advice of Mr. Church, being joined by Little Eyes, 
one of the queen's council. Mr. Church told her he was sorry 
to see so threatening an aspect of affairs, and stepping to the 
Mount Hopes, he felt of their bags, and finding them tilled 
with bullets, asked them what those bullets were for ; they 
scoflSingly replied, " to shoot pigeons with." 

Then he told Aswonhoks he thought it most advisable for 
her to send to the governor of Plymouth, and shelter herself 
and people under his jurisdiction. She liked this advice and 



72 The Rtxords of Oxford. 

desired him to go in her behalf to the Plymouth government, 
which he consented to, and at parting advised her, whatever 
she did, not to desert the English interest, to join with her 
neighbors in a rebellion which would certainly prove fatal to 
her. She thanked him for his advice, and sent two of her men 
to guard him to his house, which when they came there, urged 
him to take care to secure his goods, which he refused, as he 
ijad decided to move none of his goods from his house, that 
there might not be the least offense given to the Indians by 
such a course of action, but desired them if what they feared 
should happen, the}^ would take care of wliat he left, and di- 
rected them to a place in the woods where they should dispose 
of them, which they faithfully observed. 

Mr. Church then hastened to Pocasset,* where he met with 
Peter Nunnuit, the husband of the queen of Pocasset, who was 
just then come over in a canoe from Mount Hope. Peter told 
him that there would certainly be war ; for Philip had held a 
dance of several weeks' continuance and had entertained the 
young men from all parts of the country ; and added that 
Philip expected to be sent for to Pl^miouth to be examined 
about Saussaman's death, who was murdered at Assawomset 
Pond (Middleborough) knowing himself guilty of contriving 
that murder. Peter desired Mr. Church to see his squaw. 
Mr. Church advised her to go to the island and secure herself 
and those with her, and send to the governor of Plymouth. The 
same Peter told him that he saw Mr. James Brown of Swansey 
(one of the magistrates of Plymouth jurisdiction) and his in- 
terpreter and two other men who brought a letter from the 
governor of Plymouth to Philip. 

He observed to him further that the young men were very 
eager to begin the war and would have fain killed Mr. Brown 
of Swansey, but Philip prevented it, " telling them his father 



* The mainland over against the easterly end of Rhode Island, where 
now is Tiverton. — Hubbard. 



Colonel Church'' s Narrative. 73 

had charged Win to show kindness to Mr. Brown."— Phihp's 
War, page 9 . 

Mr. Chnrch proceeded at once to Plymouth to wait on the 
governor, where he arrived in the morning, though he bad en- 
route called on some of the magistrates who were of the coun- 
cil of war to meet him at the governor's house. He gave them 
a statement of what had been communicated to him, which 
caused them to hasten preparations of defence. 

During the month of June, 1676, Captain Church, in 
passing over with a canoe from Pocasset to Rhode Island, 
which he was often accustomed to do, several Indians 
made signals to him as if to communicate with him ; having 
only one Englishman witli him and two Indians, he directed 
them to keep off the canoe while he went on shore to speak 
with them. 

The Indians informed him they were weary of fighting for 
Pbilip, and were resolved to fight for him no longer. 

AH they desired of Capt. Church was to acquaint the Gov- 
ernor of their decision, and that they would live quietly with the 
English as they had formerly done, and that they would deliver 
Tip their arms, or would go out with the English if he pleased 
to accept of tbem and fight for him. They desired further 
conversation with Captain Church and wished him to appoint 
a time and place. He made an appointment with Aswonhoks, 
being three miles off, he told George to inform her, her son 
Peter, their cbief captain, and one Nompash, an Indian that 
Capt. Church had formerly much respected to meet him two 
days after, at 12 o'clock, at Seaconet, at a rock at the lower end 
of Captain Eichmond's farm, which was a very noted place at 
Sogkanate point, and if that day should prove stormy or windy 
they were to expect him the next moderate day. 

In keeping his appointment Capt. Church was accom- 
panied with only his own man and two Indians, and as soon as 
he had landed found Aswonhoks and those he had named to meet 
10 



74 The Records of Oxford. 

him, Tliej successively gave him their hauds, and expressed 
themselves glad to see him, and gave him thanks for exposing 
himself to visit them. They walked together about a gun 
shot from the water, to a convenient place to sit down, when 
at once rose up a great body of Indians, who had been con- 
cealed in the tall grass and gathered around them till they had 
closed them in, being all armed with guns, spears, hatchets, 
&c., with their hair trimmed and faces painted in their warlike 
appearance. 

It was doubtless somewhat surprising to a gentleman at 
first, but without any visible discovery of it Mr. Church spoke 
to Aswonhoks and told her that a messenger had informed 
him she had a desire to see him and discourse about making 
peace with the English. She assured him she wished to unite 
with the English if the government of Plymouth would firmly 
engage to them that they, and all of them and their wives and 
children should have their lives spared and none of them trans- 
ported out of the country they would subject themselves to 
them and serve them in what they were able. 

Capt. Church answered them he was well satisfied the gov- 
ernment of Plymouth would readily concur with what they 
proposed and would sign their articles. 

Capt. Church expressed his pleasure of their return and of 
the former f riendshij) that had been between them. The chief 
captain rose up and expressed the great value and respect he 
had for Mr. Church, and bowing to him said : " Sir, if you'll 
please to accept of me and my men, and will lead us, we'll 
fight for you and will help you to Philip's head before the In- 
dian corn be ripe." And when he had ended, they all expressed 
their consent to what he said, and told Church they loved him, 
and were willing to go with him and fight for him as long as 
the English had one enemy left in the country. 

" Their friendship ever continued to Mr. Church." Then 
Mr. Church proposed unto them that they should select five 



Colonel CJmrcU s Narrative. 75 

men to go with him to Tlymouth; they told him they would 
not choose, but he should take which five he pleased ; finally 
it was agreed they should choose three men and he two. 

They objected that he should travel through the woods, as it 
was unsafe for him and they might lose their friend. 

After Aswonhoks consulted Capt. Clmrch of what course 
she should pm-sue nothing is related of her until about the close 
of the month of June. A squaw Sachem of Seaconet, one of 
Philip's allies, sent three messengers to the Governor of 
Plymouth, promising submission to the English, on condition 
of life and liberty being granted to her subjects. 

She and her people, some ninety in number, surrendered 
themselves to Major Bradford. 

Capt. Church wrote an account of his interview with the 
Indians, and drew the articles of peace and dispatched Peter 
with them to Plymouth for the governor if approved to sign. 
By midnight Capt. Church was aroused by an express from 
Major Bradford, who was arrived with the army at Pocasset 
to whom Church repaired, he returned to go to Aswonhoks 
and inform her the army was arrived. The next morning the 
whole army marched toward Sogkonate. Capt. Church with 
a few men went to inform Aswonhoks and her people to come 
to the English camp. He informed her he was come for her 
and her people to Punkatese, where Major Bradford now is 
with the army, expecting her and her subjects to receive orders 
until further notice could be had from the government. 

The next day at twelve o'clock she with her people appeared 
before the English camp at Punkatese. Mr. Church tendered 
to the major to serve under his command, provided the Indians 
might be accepted with him to fight the enemy. 

The major told him his orders were to improve him, but as 
for the Indians he would not be concerned with them. And 
soon ordered Aswonhoks and her subjects to repair to Sand- 
wich to remain so six days. Mr. Church told them he would 



76 TJie Records of Oxford. 

meet them, and tliat be was conlident the governor would 
coraraission him to improve them. The major hastened to 
send them away with an Indian in front witli a flag of truce 
in his hand. 

Mr. Church soon repaired to the governor, who informed 
him he had confirmed all he had promised Aswonhoks, and 
had sent the Indian back who had brought the letter. Capt. 
Church informed the governor of what had passed with Aswon- 
hoks and her subjects. 

Church requested tlie governor to give him a commission to 
command the Sagkonate Indians to fight Philip. The gover- 
nor assured him a commission if he would accept it, and get 
good Englishmen enough to make up a good army. 

Mr. Cliurch, on his return to confer with Aswonhoks, after 
crossing Sippecan river (Rochester) he with his party pro- 
ceeded and crossed another river and opened a great bay, where 
they might see many miles along the shore, where were flats 
and sands ; and hearing a great noise below them toward the 
sea, they dismounted their horses and cauie near the bank and 
saw a vast company of Indians of both sexes and of all ages, 
some on horseback running races, some at foot ball, some catch- 
ing eels and flat fish in the water, some clamming, etc. Mr. 
Church was soon informed that the Indians belonged to Aswon- 
hoks and her company. Soon a party of Indians all mounted 
on horseback and well armed came riding up to Mr. Church, 
but treated him with all due respect. Mr. Church dispatched 
a messenger to Aswonhoks to tell her he was come to meet her 
and that he designed to sup with her in the evening and to 
lodge in her camp that night. Upon their arrival they were 
conducted to a shelter open on one side, Aswonhoks and her 
chiefs received them, and the multitude gave shouts as made 
the heavens to ring. 

It being now about sun setting or near the dusk of the even- 
ing, the Netops came running from all quarters laden with the 



Colonel Clinrcia s Narrative. jy 

tops of dry pines and the like combustible matter, making a 
luige pile thereof near Mr. Cliurch's shelter, on the open side 
thereof; but hy this time supper was brought in, in three 
dishes, viz.: a curious young bass in one dish, eels and flat lish 
in a second, and shell fish in a third, but neither bread nor 
salt to be seen at table; but by that time sn])per was over, the 
mighty pile of pine knots and tops, etc., was fired, and all the 
Indians, great and small, gathered in a ring around it. Aswon- 
hoks and the oldest of the people, men and women mixed, 
kneeling down made the first ring next the fire, and all the 
lusty, stout men standing up made the next, and then all the 
rabble in a confused crew surrounded on the outside. 

Then the chief captain stepped in between the rings and the 
fire with a spear in one hand and a hatchet in the other danced 
around the fire and began to fight with it, making mention of 
all the several nations and companies of Indians in the country 
that were enemies to the English, and at naming of every 
particular tribe of Indians, he would draw out and fight a new 
fire-brand, and at finishing his fight with each particular fire- 
brand would bow to him and thank him, and when he had 
named all the several nations and tribes, and fought them all, 
he stuck dowm his spear and hatchet and came out and another 
stepped in and acted over the same dance with more fury if 
possible than the first, and when about a half a dozen of their 
chiefs had thus acted their parts the captain of the guard 
stepped np to Mr. Church and told him they were making 
soldiers for him, and what they had been doing was all one 
swearing them, and having in that manner engaged all the 
stont, lusty men. Aswonhoks and her chiefs came to Mr. 
Church and told him that now they were all engaged to fight 
for the English, and he might call forth all, or any of them at 
any time as he saw occasion to fight the enemy, and presented 
him with a very fine firelock. Mr. Church accepts their offer 



78 The Records of Oxford. 

drew out a number of them and set out next mornino: before 
day for Plymouth, where they arrived the same day.* 

It is to be mentioned that these Indians did not belong to 
Philip, but were under the Seaconet squaw, who was nearly 
related to Philip, and her subjects had fought for Philip till 
they despaired of any success or good to themselves. But 
these Seaconet Indians ever remained firm in their friendship 
for Col. Church and faithful in the service of the English. 

Hubbard states, " that Capt. Church with the English, and 
with these Seaconet Indians under his command, from June 
to the last of October following, had subdued by killing or 
making prisoners, seven hundred Indians, and also three hun- 
dred Indians were induced to submit voluntarily to the English 
government." 

Hubbard states, " that this act of these Indians broke 
Philip's heart as soon as ever he understood it, so as he never 
rejoiced after or had any success in any of his designs, but lost 
his men one after another till himself at last fell into hands of 
those under Capt. Church's command." 

Many tribes deserting Philip he had returned to Mount 
Hope, his son and his wife were soon after captured, he said, 
" Now my heart breaks ; I am ready to die." 

For through the vigilance and bravery of Capt. Church with 
the Seaconet Indians under his command, Philip was found to 
have returned to his old home at Mount Hope, though deserted 
by most of his followers, still bitter against the English. Here 
he was killed August 12, 1676, by being shot through the heart, 
in the marshes of that place by a Seaconet Indian. Thus fell 
the last chief of the Wampanoags and with his death the 
power of the Indians was destroyed.f 

* Mr. Church received a captain's commission July 24, 1676. 
fThe sword of Col. Church is still preserved in the Historical Society 
at Boston as a relic of Philip's war. 



Colonel CJiurclCs Narrative. 79 

On the 28tli of August occurred the death of Annawon, 
Philip's great captain and one of his chief counsellors, and his 
death with that of Philip ended this disastrous war.* 

It is said that Philip at the commencement of his rebellion 
had about three hundred lighting men under liira, besides 
those that belonged to his kinswoman, Wetamore, drowned 
about Taunton, that had almost as many under her, and one 
Quenoquin, a Narragansett Sachem, that lived near him and 
joined with him in his hatred to the English. 

Mather has this record of James Printer : 

July 8, 1676 ; " Whereas, the council at Boston had lately 
emitted a declaration, signifying that such Indians as did 
within fourteen days, come into the English, might hope for 
mercy, divers of them did this day return from among the 
Nipmucks. Among others James, an Indian, wlio could not 
only read and write, but had learned the art of printing, not- 
withstanding his apostacy, did venture hinjself upon the mercy 

*Annawon, when made a prisoner by Captain Church, fell upon his 
knees before him and speaking in English said: "Great Captain, 
you have killed Philip and conquered his country, for I believe that I 
and my company are the last that was against the English, so suppose 
the war is ended by your means, and therefore these things belong to 
you." Then opening his pack he pulled out Philip's belt, curiously 
wrought with wampum, being nine inches broad, wrought with white 
and black wampum in various figures and flowers, and pictures of many 
birds and beasts. This when hung upon Capt. Church's shoulders 
reached his ankles. 

And another belt of wampum he presented him, wrought in the same 
manner, which Philip was accustomed to place on his head ; it had two 
flags on the back part which hung down on his back, and another small 
belt with a star upon the end of it which he used to hang on his breast, 
and they were all edged with red hair which Annawon said he got in 
the Mohogs country. Then he pulled out two horns of glazed powder 
and a red cloth blanket. He told Capt. Church these were Philip's 
royalties which he was wont to adorn himself with when he sat in state. 

Annawon added he thought himself happy to present them to Capt. 
Church. J 



8o The Records of Oxford. 

and tmtli of the English declaration, which he had seen and 
read, promising for the future to venture his life against the 
common enemj." 

A letter written by a Christian Indian, " supplicating mercy," 
is preserved in one of a series of tracts, first printed in London 
1676. 

Tliis letter was signed by John and other Nipmuck Saga- 
mores, and sent by a party with a white flag, July 6, 1676, 
from Nashaway. 

John subscribed this paper : 

" Mr. John Leveret (Gov. Leveret). — My Lord, Mr. "Waban 
and all the chief men our brethren, praying to God. 

" We beseech you all to help us ; my wife she is but one, 
but there be more prisoners, which we pray you keep well. 

" Mattarauck his wife, we entreat you for her ; and not only 
that man, but it is the request of two Sachems. 

" Sam Sachem of Weshakin 
and Pakashoag Sachem." 

" And that further you will, consider about the making 
peace. We have spoken to the people of Nashobah (viz.: Tom 
Dubler and Peter) that we would agree with you and make a 
covenant of peace with you. 

" We have been destroyed by your soldiers ; but still we 
remember it now, to sit still ; do you consider it again ; we do 
earnestly entreat you that it may be so. 

" By Jesus Christ. 

" O let it be so ! Amen, Amen." 

Mattamuck, his mark iV. 
Sam Sachem, his mark p. 
Simon Pottoquam, scribe % 
TJppanippaquim, his mark Q. 
Pakaskoag, his mark F- 

Mather's History, 43. . 
Hubbard's !N"arrative, 101. 



Governor MayJiezv's Sketch of Philip's War. 8 1 

The result of Philip's war was, the whole territory eventually 
became the plantation of the English. 

And yet the country continued to be exposed to the Indian 
raids, instigated by the French, until the close of the French 
war. 



CHAPTER VIL 

Governor Mayhew's Sketch of Philip's War. 

"During the late distressing war between the English and 
the Indians in New England, in the years 1675 and 1676, 
wherein almost all the Indian Nations on the Main were united 
against us, a censorious Spirit possessed too many of the Eng- 
lish, whereby they suffered themselves to be unreasonably ex- 
asperated against all the Indians, without distinction. 

" Of such there were some on these Islands, who could hardly 
be so moderated by Governor Mayhew and others in Govern- 
ment with him, as to be restrained from rising to assay the dis- 
arming even these Island Indians ; they being then twenty to 
one of the English, and having Arms. 

" For the Satisfaction of these jealous English, Capt. Rich- 
ard Sarson, Esq ; being ordered with a small Party to treat 
with the Natives on the West End of the Yineyard, who were 
most to be doubted, as being nearest the Continent, about three 
Leagues off, having the greatest Acquaintance and Correspond- 
ence there, and being the latest that had embraced Christianity, 
he returns with this wise and amiable Answer, 

" That the delivering their Arms would expose them to the 

Will of the Indians engaged in the present War, who were not 

less their own than Enemies to the English ; that they had 

never given occasion for the Distrust intimated ; that if in 

11 



82 The Records of Oxford. 

any tiling not hazarding their Safety they could give any Sat- 
isfaction or Proof of their Friendship and Fidelity, they would 
readily do what should reasonably be demanded of them ; But 
in this Particular, they were unwilling to deliver their Arms, 
unless the English would propose some likely Means for their 
necessary Safety and Preservation. 

" Witii this Reply, tliey drew a Writing in their own Lan- 
guage, wherein they declared. That as they had submitted 
freely to the Crown of England, so they resolved to assist the 
Enoflish on these Islands against their Enemies, which thev ac- 
counted equally their own, as Subjects to the same King. 

"And this was subscribed by Persons of the greatest Note 
and Power among them. 

" Having this Return the Governor resolved, and accordingly 
imployed them as a Guard in this time of eminent Danger ; 
furnishing them with suitable Anununition, and giving them 
Instructions how to manage for the common Safety. And so 
faithful were tliey, that they not only resolutely rejected the 
strong and repeated Sollicitations of the Natives on the neigh- 
boring Main, but in observance of the general Orders given 
them, when any landed from thence to sollicit them, tho' some 
were nearly related by Marriage, and others by Blood, yet the 
Island Indians would immediately bring them before the Gov- 
ernor to attend his Pleasure ; 

" Yea, so entire and firm did their Friendship appear, that 
tho' the War, on account of the Multitudes of Indians then on 
the Main, had a very dismal Aspect; yet the English on these 
Islands took no care of their own Defence, but left it wholly 
to these Chi'istian Indians to watch for and guard them ; not 
doubting to be advertised by them of any approaching Danger 
from the Enemy. And thus while the War was raging in a 
most dreadful manner thro'out the Neighboring Countries, 
these Islands enjoyed a perfect Calm of Peace ; and the Peo- 
ple wrouglit, and dwelt secure and quiet. 



Governor Mayhciv' s Sketch of Philip's War. 83 

• This was the genuine and happy Effect of Mr. Mayhew the 
Governor's excellent Conduct, and of the introduction of the 
Christian Religion among thera." 

Governor Mahew perfected himself in the Indian language, 
and ordinarily preached in some of the assemblies of the na- 
tives one day every week, sometimes traveling the distance of 
twenty miles through the forest with no English house for 
lodging. 

Eev. James Keith of Beidgewater. 

His influence and advice with the civil authoiities of the 
colony were considerable. 

In the subject of the capture of Philip's squaw and child, 
as to the question of what should be the disposal of the son 
was in consideration, and the opinion of grave divines sought. 
Mr. Keith's opinion, stated in a letter to Rev. Mr. Cotton, in 
favor of mercy and dissenting from most others, had great 
weight indeed if it were not decisive. The life of Philip's son 

was spared.* 

During this war Philip's women and children were made 
prisoners'"; most of them, it would appear, were brought into 
Boston, as well as the prisoners of war. At hrst they were as- 
signed 'to such Enghsh families as would receive them as ser- 
vants, but before the war ended they were sent to the West 
Indies to be sold as slaves. Philip's wife and child became 
also the slaves of a West Indian planter. Eev. Mr. Eliot made 
his protest at the time but without avail against this additional 

~ *A letteT^TRe^ames Keith, dated October 30, 1670, showing his 
interest upon the subject, is found in the History of Bridgewater. 

Rev James Keith was from Scotland (one of the Border Clans). The 
name anciently de Keith. He was educated at Aberdeen; he came to 
Boston in 1663, and was introduced to the church of Bridgewater by 
Dr. Increase Mather, whom he ever considered his best friend and 
patron. 



84 The Records of Oxford. 

barbarity of the English, "that an Indian princess and her 
cliild mnst be banished from the cool breezes of Mount Plope 
and from the wild freedom of a New England forest and con- 
signed to hopeless slavery." 

Fearing, in 1636, that the Narragansett Indians would join 
the Pequots in hostilities against the English, and to perpetu- 
ate a peace between the colonies and the Narragansetts, the 
governor sent a messenger to Miantonomo, their chief sachem 
(a nephew of Canonicus), to invite him to Boston.* 

" Miantonomo, the Sacliem of the Narrhagansets, came to 
Boston (being sent for by the Governor), with two of Cauoni- 
cus's sous and another Sachem, and near twenty of their men. 
The Governor, having notice by Cushamakin, the Massachu- 
setts Sachem, sent twenty musketeers to Roxbury to meet them. 
They came to Boston about noon, where the Governor had 
called togetlier all the Maijistrates and Ministers to give coun- 
tenance to their proceedings, and to advise about the terms of 
peace. After dinner, Miantonomo declared what he had to say 
to them in several propositions, which were to this effect, that 
they had always loved the English, and now desired a firm 
peace with them, and that they would continue war with the 
Pequots and their confederates, till they were subdued, and 
desired the English would do so too; Promising to deliver 
their enemies to them or kill them, and two months after to send 
them a present. The Governor told them they should have 
an answer the next morning, which was done, upon articles 
subscribed by him, and tliey also subscribed with him, wherein 
a tirm peace was concluded. — Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 25.f 



*The Pequot war in the colony of Counecticut in 1637. 

t Corn court leads off from Faneuil Hall square on the south of 
the hall. Here in early times was a public corn market, situated at 
the water's edge. In this court, now shut in by high business blocks, 
stands an inn which makes the boast of being the oldest in Boston. 
Samuel Cole kept tavern here in 1634, and under many succeeding land- 



A Letter to Sir Henry Vane. 85 

Faithful in his misfortunes, Rev. Roger Williams sent a let- 
ter to Sir Henry Vane, governor of the Massachusetts and 
warned him of the impending danger from the Pequots, and 
volunteered his services to defeat the conspiracy if possible. 
In the governor's reply Mr. Williams was urged to use his 
utmost endeavors to prevent the threatened alliance of the Pe- 
quots with the Narragansetts. 

Mr. Williams plead with Canonicus the chief of the Narra- 
gansetts, and with Miantonomo, his nephew and heir, to stand 
fast in their allegiance with the English, for the Pequots made 
an effort to have the Narragan setts and Mohegan Indians join 
them and exterminate the English. 

Previously to the Pequot war the Naragansetts, the most 
numerous of the Indian nations, were wavering in their alle- 
giance to the English and hesitated in joining them against the 
Pequots. They, however, decided in favor of the English. 

Roger Williams in a letter to Major Mason, gave an account 
of his services to the colonies of Massachusetts and Plymouth, in 
regard to the Indians, as follows : " In accordance with letters 
received from the Governor and Council of Boston, requesting 
me to use my utmost and speediest endeavors to break and 
hinder the league labored for by the Pequots and the Mohegans 
against the English, the Lord helped me immediately to take 
my life in my hand, and scarcely acquainting my wife, to ship 
myself all alone in a poor canoe, and cut through a stormy wind, 
great seas, every minute in hazard of my life, to the Sachem's 
home. Three days and nights my mission forced me to lodge 



lords the bouse has afforded shelter and entertaiument to many dis- 
tinguished people. 

When Miantonomo, the Narragansett chief, was entertained by Gov- 
ernor Vane in 1636, he, and twenty of his followers, were banquetted in 
the tavern. Landlord Cole was a substantial citizen, a selectman of the 
town and a charter member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
Company. 



86 The Records of Oxford. 

and mix with the bloody Peqnot, ambassadors ; whose hands 
methonght, reeked with the blood of countrymen massacred on 
Connecticut river. I conld not but nightly look for their 
bloody knives at my own throat likewise." " God wondrously 
preserved me, and helped me to defeat the Peqiiot negotia- 
tions and designs, and to promote and finish, by many travels 
and charges the English league with the Narragansetts and 
Mohegans against the Pequots." 

" When the English forces marched through the Narragan- 
sett country, against, the Pequots, I gladly entertained at my 
home in Providence, General Stoughton and his officers.''* 

In 164:2 letters from the Connecticut court and from two of 
their magistrates came to Boston, stating that it was feared 
the Narragansett Indians were conspiring against the English 
colonies, " being influenced by Miantonomo, who was of a 
haughty spirit and aspiring mind, the heir apparent of all the 
Narragansett nations after the death of the old Sachem, Ca- 
nonicus, who was his uncle." Mr. Hubbard describes Mian- 
tonomo " as a very goodly personage, of tall stature, as well as 
haughty in his designs." 

" The governor and the magistrates, as many as could con- 
vene together before the court, ordered that all the Indians 
within their jurisdiction should be disarmed, which they will- 
ingly yielded unto." Miantonomo was sent unto, and by his 
readiness to appear satisfied the English that he was innocent 
of a conspiracy. 

But Miantonomo returned to his home dissatisfied at the 
treatment he received from the English, who regarded him as 
a culprit, and refusing to him a seat. Notwithstanding the 
treaty signed at Hartford, Miantonomo in 1643, engaged in 
war with the Mohegans and was made a prisoner by Uncas 
and taken to Hartford. 

*Z. Allen, LL. D. 



Governor WintJirop' s Journal. 87 

The magistrates of Hartford having no cause of complaint 
against the Narragansett chief, advised that the whole affair 
should be referred to the commissioners of the United colonies, 
who assembled in Boston, September, 1643. 

" "Was Mian tonomo to be punished because he had disre- 
garded the treaty by neglecting to notify the English that he 
proposed to make war upon Uncas ? " But this was not true 
according to Winthrop's own testimony ; in his journal Win- 
throp had recorded, " Miantonomo sent to Mr. Ilaynes at Hart- 
ford to complain of ' Onkus ; ' " and Governor Haynes had re- 
plied " that the English had no hand in it, nor would encour- 
age them." 

"Miantonomo gave notice hereof also to our governor," 
Winthrop himself continues the journal, and the chief was told 
to take his own course. Miantonomo took his own course. 
" In this difficulty," says Winthrop, after giving the decision 
of the connnissioners, " we called in five of the most judicious 
elders (it being the time of the general assembly of the elders), 
and propounded the case to them. They all agreed that he 
ought to be put to death." 

Winthrop's statement of the commissioners is that they 
" takino; into consideration what was safest and best to be 
done, were all of opinion that it would not be safe to set him 
(Miantonomo) at liberty. Neither had we sufiicient ground 
for us to put hiai to death." 

"There were found no criminal allegations against Mian- 
tonomo and nothing worthy of death had been done by him, 
and yet it was decided to take his life without committing a 
crime worthy of death. There was word sent to Hartford to 
deliver over Miantonomo to Uncas to be massacred." 

The death of the brave Miantonomo in 1643 by Uncas the 
Mohegan, with the consent of the English, had resulted in an 
implacable malice between the rival Indians and a deeper 
enmity toward the English, as his life was sacrificed through 
their influence. 



88 TJlc Records of Oxford. 

Philip's War. 

Kev. Roger Williams states the Narragansett Indians had 
been restrained until their treatment had become too offensive 
to endure as is testified to in an official message sent to Governor 
Winthi'op in Connecticut, by the Legislature of Rhode Island, 
dated October 26, 1696, and certified at Newport by the Sec- 
retary of State, as follows : 

"We believe tliat if matters come to a just enquiry concern- 
ing the cause of the Indian War, that our Narragansett Sachems 
were subjects to his Majesty, and by his Commissioners were 
taken under his protection, and put under our government. 
They manifested to us their submission by appearing whenever 
sent for." 

"Neither was there any manifestation of war against us 
from them ; but always the contrary, until the United Colonies 
forced them to war, or to such submissions as it seems they 
could not submit to. The United Colonies (Plymouth, Mas- 
sachusetts and Connecticut), thus involved us in these hazards, 
charges and losses, to our outer Plantations." 

" The Narragansetts and Mohawks are the two greatest na- 
tions of Indians in this country. They have been confederates, 
and are both, as yet, firmly and peaceably disposed to the Eng- 
lish. I do humbly conceive, in case of unavoidable war with 
either of them, to make sure of the one as a friend." 

" The Narragansetts have ever continued friendly from the 
first, and they have been true to you in the Pequot War, and 
induced the Mohegans to come in. Then ensued the downfall 
of the Pequots." 

During the Pequot war in 1637, Rhode Island was protected 
by the friendly Narragansetts.* 

*In 1643 was formed the union of New England ; Providence and 
Rhode Island both pleaded for admission. 

Rev. Roger Williams was sent to Loudon. He was welcomed by his 



Rev. Roger Williams in London. 89 

The English colony of Plymouth were hospitably received 
by the natives on their arrival to this country. The first na- 
tive Indian who visited them greeted them kindly in a few 
English words which he had learned from fisherman and other 
voyagers on the coast of Maine. Some accounts state that this 
native Indian had been kidnapped by Capt. Hunt in 1614, and 
had been taken to England and sold into slavery, but had found 
his way back to his native land. 

Soon after the first settlement of the English colony at 
Plymouth, Massasoit, " the chief Sachem of all that side of 
the country," came to the English at Plymouth, March 16, 
1621, and entered into a treaty with them. 

" In the autumn, nine of the neighboring Sachems came in 
and made a treaty of peace, and agreed to become subjects of 
the King of Great Britain." 

This compact entitled them to be treated as fellow-subjects. 

Massasoit, though a native Indian, possessed the elements of 
a great and noble mind and a generous heart. His character 
is without reproach as it regards his treatment of the English 
from the time he arrived at Plymouth to extend to them his 
friendship, till the time of his death in 1661; in all this period 

steadfast friend Sir Henry Vane (who) was now an influential member of 
parliament. He obtained a charter. He visited London a second time 
and was successful in his efforts to prevent a separation of Rhode Island 
from the common government. The people wished him to be commis- 
sioned by the English Council as governor of the province. He de- 
clined to accept the tempting commission. 

Roger Williams was a native of Wales, born in 1606, educated at 
Cambridge, England ; the pupil of Sir Edward Coke, in after years the 
personal friend of Milton. 

The lands which he received from Canonicus and Miantonomo were 
freely distributed among the colonists, only two small fields to be tilled 
and planted by his own hands, and kept by the founder for his own 
plantation. 

12 



90 The Records of Oxford. 

in not a single instance did lie depart from the agreements of 
the treaty which he made with the English.* 

Mr. Edward Winslow stated in a letter to a friend in Eng- 
land : 

" We have found the Indians very faithful in their covenants 
of peace with us, very loving and ready to pleasure us. We 
go with them in some cases, fifty miles into the country ; and 
walk as safely and peaceably in^ the woods, as in the highways 
in England. We entertain them familiarly in our houses ; and 
they are friendly in bestowing their venison upon us. 

" They are a people without religion yet very trusty, quick of 
apprehension, humorous and just." — Z. Allen's Address, p. 15. 

In 1622, Mr. Weston, a merchant of London, having pro- 
cured for himself a patent for a tract of land in Massachusetts 
Bay of the London Stock Company, he sent two ships with 
fifty men or more, at his own expense, to form a settlement at 
Weymouth. 

Morton states : " The Indians complained of them for steal- 
ing their corn, and that they care not for the rule of right." 

Governor Bradford wrote to the manager of the Weston 
Colony, warning him against such doings. " Early in the 
spring Gov. Bradford received information that the Massachu- 
setts Indians had entered into a conspiracy to drive away the 

♦ Old records of the times state that Massasoit, when he came 
to make the treaty with the English at Plymouth, was distinguished 
from the other natives with him only by " a string of white bone beads 
about his neck ; his face was painted of a sod red, and both face and 
head were profusely oiled." 

Massasoit, also called Osemequin, Sachem of the Wampanoags, at his 
death was succeeded by his son, Wamsutta, called by the English name 
of Alexander, who had no affection toward the English, neither to their 
persons nor their religion, but had endeavored to influence the Narragan- 
setts to rise against the English. At his death his brother Philip, known 
as Metacomet, succeeded him, and was called generally for his haughty 
and ambitious spirit King Philip. 



A Letter from Holland. 91 

English of the Weston Colony including the Plymouth settle- 
ment. Massasoit, grateful for the kindness he had received 
from the English, advised them as the only means of safety to 
take the lives of the conspirators, which Capt. Miles Standish 
effected. 

When the news of this affair reached Holland, Mr. Robin- 
son, the pastor, wrote : " Concerning the killing of these poor 
Indians, of which we heard at first by reporte, and since by 
more certaine relation. ' Oh, how happy a thing had it been if 
you had converted some before you had killed any ; besides 
where bloud is one begune to be shed, it is seldome stanched 
for a long time after.' " 

In the same letter to Captain Standish, " Let me be bould," 
he adds, " to exhorte you seriously to consider of the disposi- 
tion of your Captaine, whom I love, and am persuaded the 
Lord in great mercie and for much good hath sent you him, if 
you use him aright. 

" Ther is cause to fear that by occasions espectially of provo- 
cation, ther may be wanting that tenderness of the life of man 
made after God's image which is meete." 

It is said, the Indians have ever been distinguished for 
friendship, justice, magnanimity and a high sense of honor, but 
their revenge for real or supposed injury was implacable ; any 
act of kindness received by them was never to be forgotten, 
but returned, however distant the opportunity. 

The same noble traits of character are now to be found in the 
native red men of this country as in the time of Governor 
Mayhew, Rev. Roger Williams and Rev. John Eliot. 

The late Hon. Zachariah Allen, LL.D., of Providence, R. 
I.,* in response to an address before the Historical Society of 
Rhode Island, April 10, 1876, in which he delineated the In- 
dian character so truthfully, recognizing their love of justice 

* Hon. Zachariah Allen was president of the Historical Society of 
Bhode Island. 



92 The Records of Oxford. 

and appreciation of kindness, he invoked sympathy for their 
sufferings. 

Mr. Allen had the satisfaction of receiving the official con- 
gratulations of two distinct tribes of Indians in the Dominion of 
Canada. The Ojibways and the Pattawatomies, who in their 
distant lodges sent him their thanks and congratulations . 

The Ojibways returned their thanks and congratulations to 
Mr. Allen as their friend. 

"At a council of Indians (Pattawatomies), the chiefs, coun- 
cillors and principal men and warriors wish to thank Mr. 
Allen for his kindness, and express our pleasure at finding the 
Red men have such a good and faithful friend as Mr. Allen. 
"We all, both men, women and children, shake hands in our 
hearts with Mr. Allen. 

" May 24, 1877. 

" Their names and totems are affixed to the official letters." 
— Life of Hon. Z. Allen. 



A Poem. 93 



A POEM. 

"Ye say they all have passed away, 

That ancient race and brave ; 

That their light canoes have vanished 

From oflf the crested wave ; 

That 'mid the forests, where they roamed, 

There rings no hunter's shout. 

But their names are on your waters, 

Ye may not wash them out. 

" Their memory lingers on your hills, 
Their baptism on your shore ; 
Your everlasting rivers speak 
Their dialect of yore. 
Old Massachusetts wears it, 
Within her lordly crown, 
And broad Ohio bears it, 
'Mid all her young renown. 

" Connecticut hath wreathed it 
Where her quiet foliage waves, 
And bold Kentucky breathed it, 
Through all her ancient caves, 
Monad noc, on his forehead hoar. 
Upholds the sacred trust ; 
The mountains are their monuments, 
Though ye destroy their dust, 

"Think ye the Eternal's ear is dull, 
His sleepless vision dim ? 
Think ye He'll fail in justice full, 
To the wronged who call on Him? " 

L. H. SiGOURNKT. 



94 The Records of Oxford. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Chapters of " Huguenot History." 
1515-1547. 

Francis deValois, Count of Angouleme, ascended the throne 
of France as the successor of Louis XII, in 1515. 

The reign of Francis I, commences the era of modern France, 
in the development of the arts, especially architecture and 
sculpture, of which Francis was the lavish patron. 

French Hterature in the sixteenth century was revived in 
France. Fj-ancis had a sympathy with learned men ; they 
received special marks of his favor. 

In 1493 Jacques Lefevre, a professor in the University at 
Paris, who had taken his degree as doctor in theology, gave 
great attention to the study of the Bible and evangelical knowl- 
edge. Thus a new life and a new doctrine had penetrated the 
University. 

During the reign of Francis I, the doctrines of Martin 
Luther, the great German Reformer, had gained an entrance 
into France, but the Reformation had for nearly half a century 
been established in England. 

Note. — These remarkable men, called the "Reformers," commenced 
with John de Wycliffe, an English Reformer, born in 1324, and died 
December 31, 1384, at the rectory of Lutterworth. Wycliffe was educated 
at the university of Oxford. During the reign of Edward III and 
Richard II, he preached the doctrines of the Reformation. Richard 
withdrew his influence, which had been in favor of Wycliffe, when God 
(says the annalist) withdrew his hand from him. Richard, after being 
deposed, was confined at Pontefract castle where he soon terminated his 
life. 

At the commencement of the fifteenth century, a few miles from 
Rochester, stood Cowling Castle in the midst of lovely meadows watered 
by the Medway. 

" The fair Medwaya that with wanton pride. 
Forms silver mazes with her crooked tide." 



Huguenot History. 95 

In this quiet retreat resided Sir John Old Castle, Lord Cob- 
ham, a gentlemen in great favor with Henry lY. Lord 
Cobham defended the doctrines of Wycliffe with his sword, 
saying he would not submit to decrees as dishonor to the ever- 
lasting Testament. Thus died a Christian, illustrious after the 
fashion of his time. 

During the reign of Henry VIII, Oxford and London did 
homage to the learned Erasmus, but he was dethroned by 
Luther, the monk of Wittemberg. "Luther and Calvin do 
not appear in England, but sliips from the harbors of the Low 
Countries brought Luther's books to London. In Henry YIII 
reign, 1525, or later, the universities, the rectories, and the 
palaces, as well the cottages and the shops of the tradesmen, 
desired to possess the scriptures." 

Subsequently to Luther, John Calvin, the French Reformer's 
writings, were still more widely disseminated in France. 

Francis I endeavored to oppose them by prohibiting all 
books of Luther and Calvin from his kingdom, and by penal 
laws and capital punishment to suppress the reformed religion. 

Francis I died in 154Y, at the age of fifty-three. 

In 1529, during the war between France and Germany, two 
ladies were permitted to restore peace to Europe. Margaret of 
Austria, aunt to Emperor Charles V, of Germany, and Louisa, 
mother to Francis I, of France, met at Cambrai and settled 
the terms of pacification between the French king and the 
emperor. The peace of Cambrai was called " The ladies' 
peace." 

In 1544, Francis and Charles, tired of harassing each other, 
concluded at Cressy a treaty of peace. 

Note.— Martin Luther, in speaking of his own delighted use of the 
Lord's Prayer, wrote that his custom in private was to take its separate 
petitions, one by one, and to enlarge upon them; and he says: "And so 
I have often learned more in one prayer, than I could have from much 
reading and composing." 



96 The Records of Oxford. 

During this period from the peace of Cambrai, 1529, to that 
of Cressy in 1544, the Reformation had gained much ground 
in Germany. 

The Emperor Charles Y, appointed a diet of the empire to 
be held at Spire. The diet issued a decree confirming the edict 
published against Luther at Worms. 

Against this decree as unjnst, the Elector of Saxony, the 
Landgrave of Hesse, the Duke of Lunenburg, the Prince 
Anhalt, together with the deputies of fourteen imperial or free 
cities of Germany, entered into a protest. 

On that account they were called Protestants, a name that 
has since become common to all who have receded from the 
church of Rome. 

At the diet of Augsburg the Protestants of Germany 
presented their system of opinions as composed by Philip 
Melancthon, a gentleman of most finished education and extrem- 
ely graceful as a public orator, and withal a lenient Reformer. 

This system known as tl)e Confession of Augsburg, from 
the place where it was presented, was publicly read in the diet. 

A decree was issued against the Protestant tenets, which 
caused the Protestant princes to assemble at Smalkalde and 
there concluded a league of mutual defense. 

The companion of Francis I was his sister Marguerite of 
Valois, Queen of Navarre. A princess narrates, Brantome (the 
courtly historian), of " vigourous understanding and great en- 
dowments, both natural and acquired." 

The most learned men in the Kingdom acknowledged 
Marguerite their patroness. When ambassadors from foreign 
countries had presented themselves at the French court, they 
were accustomed to wait on Marguerite. They were greatly 
pleased with her — and on leaving France the fame of her 
extended to other countries, so states Brantome, and he adds : 
" The king would often submit to her matters of importance, 
leaving them to her decision." 



Huguenot History. gy 

Marguerite de Valois, sister to Francis I, was educated " with 
strictness by a most excellent and most venerable dame, in 
whom all the virtues at rivalry, one with another, existed to- 
gether." [Madame de Chantillon, whose deceased husband 
had been governor to King Charles VIII.] Marguerite was 
provided with every kind of preceptors, who made her profi- 
cient in profane letters, as they were then called. She learned 
Latin, Greek, philosophy, and especially theology. " She had a 
heart," says Brantome, " devoted to God, and she loved mightily 
to compose spiritual songs." — History of France, M. Guizot. 

Marguerite, seeking for some natural emblem which might 
express the wants and affections of her soul, took, says Bran- 
tome, that of the flower of the marigold, " which, by its cor- 
olla and leaves, has the greatest affinity with the sun, and fol- 
lows it wherever it goes." She added the following device : 
" I follow not the things belovr." 

"To testify," adds the courtly writer, "that she directed all 
her actions, thoughts, wishes and affections to this great Sun, 
which was God." 

She is one of the most remarkable characters of history. 
Neither Germany nor England presents such a picture as Mar- 
guerite of Valois. 

Marguerite, while residing at the court of her brother, ob- 
tained the books and small treatises called, in the fashion of 
the time, " Tracts of Luther," and became a Protestant. Thus, 
amid the brilliancy of the court of Francis I, was one of those 
conversions of the heart which in every age are produced by 
the word of God. The opinions and influence of Maiguerite 
had no small share in extending the doctrines of the Reforma- 
tion in the kingdom of France. 

Marguerite, at one time, had so much influence on Francis I, 
her brother, as to engage him to hear the great Reformer, 
Melancthon, prea<ih the Reform doctrines, but through the 
persuasion of Cardinal de Tournon, Francis dechned. 
13 



98 The Records of Oxford. 

Marguerite extended to Calvin lier protection ; she invited 
him to her court receiving hini with distinguished kindness. 

Marguerite, in deep sadness at the course of Francis, wrote 
a book, entitled " il/i>ro2> de Vdme pechereuse'^ ("The Mir- 
ror of a sinful soul "), which was supposed to reflect a likeness 
of her brother. 

Marguerite had visited Spain to attend her brother, Francis 
I, when at Madrid, sick and a prisoner of Charles Y, having 
been taken in the battle of Pavia, February, 1525. 

It was through her influence that the Emperor had treated 
her brother according to his rank, and finally restored him to 
his kingdom. 

Attending the court, in its progress through the provinces, 
she employed herself in describing the manners of the time, 
and especially those of the priests and monks. "On these 
occasions," continues Brantorae, "I often used to hear her 
recount stories to my grandmother, who constantly accompanied 
her in her litter, as dame d'honneur, and had charge of her 
writing desk." 

According to some we have here the origin of the Hepta- 
meron ; but more recent and esteemed critics have satisfied 
themselves that Marguerite liad no hand in forming that col- 
lection, in some parts chargeable with worse than levity, but 
that it was the work of Desperiers. 

In the Kevue des Deux Mondes M. Ch. Nodier, LXX, p. 350. 
" Desperiers is in reality and almost exclusively author of 
the Heptameron. I scruple not to say I have no doubt of this, 
and entirely coincide in the opinion of Bonistuan, who, solely 
on this account, omitted and withheld the name of the Queen 
of Navarre." 

'' If as I think. Marguerite did compose some tales, doubtless 
the most harmless of those in the Heptameron, it must have 
been in her youth — just after her marriage with the Duke of 
Alen9on (1509)." — D'Aubigny. 



Huguenot History. 99 

" Every one loved her," narrates Brantonie. For " she was 
very kind, gentle, condescending, charitable, very easy of access, 
giving away much in alms, overlooking no one but winning all 
hearts by her gracious deportment." 

In 1534^, Clement Marot, accused of heresy, sought the pro- 
tection of Renee in Ferrara. He met Calvin in Ferrara, who 
was engaged on a translation of the Psalms in verse. 

Marot translated thirty of the Psalms and dedicated them to 
Francis I, who not only accepted the dedication, but recom- 
mended the work and the author to Charles Y, " who accepted 
the translation graciously, connnended it both by words and 
by a present of two hundred doubloons, which he made to 
Marot, thus giving him courage to translate the rest of the 
Psalms, and praying him to send him as soon as possible the 
Psalm (Trust in the Lord, for He is good), so fond was he of it." 

Singular sympathy between Charles Y, and his great ad- 
versary, Luther, who said of that same Psalm, " It is my friend." 

Marot published in 1541 the first thirty Psalms; in 151:3, he 
added twenty others, and dedicated the collection " to the ladies 
of France." 



Note.— " The Psalms, translated into French metre by Clement Marot, 
were set to music by Goudimel, and became extremely popular in the 
salons of Paris, and at tlie palace of the Louvre. It is said, that they 
greatly aided the Protestant cause, and induced people to read the Script- 
ures, from which the beautiful poetry was drawn which so much 
charmed their imaginations." 



lOO The Records of Oxford. 



CHAPTER IX. 

1547-1559. 

Henry II, succeeded his father Francis I, as King of France. 
He married Catherine, the daughter of Lorenzo de Medici, 
Duke of Urbino. 

Catherine assumed an important part in the government of 
France, She fascinated all strangers by her elegant manners 
and great personal beauty, but was noted for her powers of 
dissimulation of cliaracter and her cruelty of disposition. 

The preamble to the edict of Chdteaubriand, issued in 1551, 
declares that all efforts to suppress heres}' had failed, and that 
it required the severest measures "to conquer the willfulness 
and obstinacy of that wretched sect, and to clear the kingdom 
of them." Edict after edict was issued against them. 

In June, 1559, Henry II issued a decree by which the judges 
were bound to sentence all Lutherans to death, and this decree 
was published and confirmed by all the parliaments. 

Henry II was succeeded by his son Francis II, a youth of 
sixteen years, who was married to Mary, Queen of Scotland, 
who had been sent to France in her childhood to be educated. 
Francis assured his mother she should administer the govern- 
ment in his name. But the house of Lorraine and Bourbon 
were not disposed to favor that a woman from a foreign coun- 
try should control the government of France. 

In 1560, the balance of power between the two parties at 
the French court was so equally divided it was now doubtful 



Note. — lu the reiga of Henry II, the term Huguenot was applied to 
all opponents of the Catholic Church of France and Holland. They 
were so designated during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
The name of Huguenot was one of reproach. This term, as applied to 
the Protestants of France, is of uncertain origin. 

In public documents they were styled of the "new religion," or "Re- 
formed " (or of the Reformed church). 



Huguenot History. • loi 

if the Hngnenots would not control the government of France, 
as the strife between the parties had divided the kingdom. 

The Reformation liad great leaders, men who had power 
and were experienced in the affairs of the world. The Prot- 
estants had now become formidable by their numbers, leaders 
and influence. 

"In 1558, the Venetian ambassador stated the number of 
the Reformers at four hundred thousand. In 1559, at the 
death of Henry II, Claude Haton, a contemporary chronicler, 
on the Catholic side, stated that the Reformers composed a 
fourth of the population of France." — French History, Guizot. 

In 1559, the Queen of Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret, the 
daughter of Queen Marguerite, became passionately devoted 
to the faith and cause of tlie Reformation. Brantome says, in 
her early youth " she was as fond of a ball as of a sermon." 
Her husband, Anthony de Bourbon, and his brother Louis de 
Bourbon, Prince of Conde, became devoted to the cause of the 
Reformation. Admiral de Coligni openly identified himself 
iu the cause. 

On the death of Francis II (1561), Catherine de Medici, the 
Queen mother, was appointed guardian to her son Charles IX, 
only ten years of age at his accession, and invested with the 
administration of the kingdom, though not with the title of 
regent. 

Catherine attempts to govern France by balancing the Cath- 
olics against the Protestants, in consequence of her maxim, 
" divide and govern," 

When, in 1562, the edict of January was given, there was 
an effort made to induce the Queen to evade the edict ; in de- 
clining, the Queen made reply, " that the Calvinists were a 
powerful party." 

The edict of January gave to the Huguenots a formal ap- 
proval under the authority of the royal seal. The Catholic 
church denounced the government. A Franciscan monk 



I02 The Records of Oxford. 

reading the royal ordinance in his church of Saint Croix, in 
Provins, remarked, " Well, now gentlemen of Provins, what 
must I and the other preachers of France do ? Must we obey 
this order \ What shall we tell you ? What shall we preach ? 
' The gospel,' Sir Huguenot will say," adding, stating to his 
own view the errors of Martin Luther, and Calvin, and 
other preachers of erroneous doctrines, " Is not this preaching 
the Gospel ? " 

The " Edict of January " was soon followed by the massacre 
of Yassy, under the Duke of Guise, tliis was the first aggres- 
sive step which caused the first civil war in France. These 
civil wars desolated the kingdom for over thirty years, only 
interrupted by occasional truces, almost to the close of the six- 
teenth century. 

The Prince of Conde, Louis de Bourbon, was the leader of 
the Huguenots, and he demanded the punishment of the Duke 
of Guise as the author of the massacre of Yassy, and sent to 
the Admiral Coligni to solicit his support. Coligni was at 
his pleasant castle of Chatillon-sur-Loing, surrounded by his 
young family. The admiral continued to hesitate before joining 
him, it was the fear of initiating a " Civil War." 

" Peace was far distant,"— peace, which Coligni preferred 
to his own life, but would not purchase it dishonorably by the 
sacrifice of civil liberty or his Protestant faith. Many persons 
of the highest rank in France, at this time came forward and 
declared themselves to be Protestants, those of large influence 
and of extensive landed possessions. 

The Huguenots had now rendered themselves masters of 
cities in almost every French province. Many of the nobility 
were included in their number, among whom was the Count 
de la Rochefoucauld, the Earl of Montgomery, and others of 

Note. — "Mem. — de Claude Haton," 211, 213. 

"The Rise of the Huguenots of France." — Prof. Baird. 



Huguenot History. 103 

hi.^h station. One of the Chatillon, Francois d'Andelot, a 
younger brother of the Admiral Coligni, Colonel-General of 
the French infantry, whom the army had surnamed " La Cheva- 
lier sans peur,'" (the knight without fear.) 

" The Cardinal Odet de Chatillon, elder brother of Admiral 
Coligni, under the suspicion that he was a Protestant, he is cited 
by the Pope's nevj nuncio to appear at Rome, he demanded the 
red cap taken from the Cardinal. The Constable de Mont- 
morency at his palace of Chantilly, espoused his defense, I am 
myself a papist ; my nephew shall leave neither cap nor dignity, 
seeing the King's edict gives him that liberty, if otherwise, ' my 
sword shall be a Huguenot.' " 

In 1563 the two Montmoiencys, the Constable and his son, 
the Marshal, espoused Coligni's cause as their own, publicly 
declaring that any blow aimed at the Chatillons, save by legal 
process, they would regard and avenge as aimed at themselves. 

The edict of Amboise was a half way measure, neitlier was 
the accord acceptable to Catholic or Protestant. 

The peace of Amboise terminated the first civil war. The 
royal edict of Pacification was signed March, 1563, 

" The prince (Conde) and the Admyrall," wrote the special 
envoy Middlemore to Queen Elizabeth, " have been twice with 
the queue mother since my commynge hyther, where the 
admirall hath bene very earnest for a further and larger 
lybertye in the course of religion, and so hath obtayned that 
there shall be preachings within the townes in every valliage, 
whereas before yt was accordyd but in the suburbs of townes 
only, and that the gentyl men of the visconte and provoste ot 
Parys shall have in theyr houses the same lybertye of religion 
as ys accordyd elz where. So as the sayd Admyrall doth now 
seame to lyke well inonghe that he shewj^d by the waye to 
mislyke so muche, which was the harde articles of religion con- 
cludyd upon by the prince in his absence." 

Letter from Orleans, March 30, 1563. 



I04 The Records of Oxford. 

MSS. State Papers Office. 

Due d'Aiimale, Yol. I, 411. 
" Rise of the Huguenots," Vol. II, 117. 

Elizabeth of England was greatly interested in the state of 
affairs in France. 

And new troops would have entered France from the Ger- 
man borders " This day " writes Cecil To Sir Thomas Smith, 
ambassador at Paris, Feb. 27, 1562-3, 

" Connnission passeth hence to the comte of Oldenburg to 
levy eight thousand footemen and four thousand horse, who 
will, I truste passe into France with spede and corradg. He 
is a notable, grave and puissant captayu, and fully bent to hazard 

his life in the cause of religion." 

Th, Weight 
Queen Elizabeth and her Time. 

But Elizabeth's troops, like Elizabeth's money, came too late. 

Of the latter Admiral Coligni plainly told Smith a few weeks 

later : " If we could have had the money at Newhaver (Havre) 

but one XIII dales sooner, we would have talked with them 

after another sorte, and would not have been contented with 

this accord." 

Due d'Aumale, I, 439. 

In 1569 the Prince of Conde was killed at the battle of Jarnac. 
Coliffni now placed the young Henry of Navari'e, only sixteen 
years of age, and the young Prince of Conde, at the head of 
the Protestant party. 

Admiral Coligni was assassinated previous to the massacre 
of Paris. 

" Thus says Davila, died the Admiral Gaspard de Coligni, 
who had filled the Kingdom of France with the glory and terror 
of his name for the space of twelve years." 

Fleury 24, 45, states the heirs of Coligni were permitted to 
enter into their estates. 



Huguenot History. 105 

The Massacre of Paris on St. Bartholomew's Day occurred 
August 24, 1572, a striking picture of which is drawn by Fenelon, 
the French ambassador at the court of England, in his account of 
his first audience after that barbarous transaction. " A gloomy 
sorrow," says he, " sat on every face; silence, as in the dead of 
night reigned through all the chambers of the royal apartment ; 
the ladies and courtiers clad in deep mourning were ranged on 
each side ; and as I passed bj^ them, in my approach to the 
queen, not one bestowed on me a favorable look, or made the 
least return to my salutations." — From Fenelou's Desjjatches. 

" La Kochelle the stronghold of the Huguenots, before 
which in a manner was assembled the whole force of France, 
became now the theatre of a civil war, she shut her gates and 
sustained a siege of eight months. 

"During the siege the citizens repelled nine general and 
twenty particular assaults, and obliged the Duke of Anjou who 
conducted the attack, and lost twenty-four thousand men, to 
grant them an advantageous treaty of Pacification in 1573.* 
Thus ended the fourth civil war." 

Charles IX died at the youthful age of twenty-five years ; 
he was succeeded by his brother, the Duke of Anjou, as Henry 
III, who was also in extreme youth. 

The south of France was at this time filled with Protestants, 
and many were found in the northern provinces. 

Henry III and Catherine his mother, failed in establishing 
peace with their government for fifteen years. 

During this time different parties were aspiring to the crown 
of France. 

Henry III of Valois, was at the head of the royal authority ; 
Henry of Guise was the leader of the zealous Catholics and 
the League ; Henry of Navarre was the leader of the Hu- 
guenots. 

The Duke d'Aumale in his Histoire des Princes de Conde, 

*Davila, lib. 5. 
14 



io6 The Records of Oxford. 

narrates of the battle of Coutras, in 1587. " The Bearnese was 
on horse-back whilst his adversary was banqueting." 

Joyeuse when near to Coutras, found the town occupied by 
the Protestant advance-guard. 

The battle began on October 20, 1587, shortly after sunrise. 

Before mid-day the battle was won, and the royalist army 
routed, and the Duke de Joyeuse in command, was fatally 
wounded. 

The following is a description of the battle of Coutras : 

" His body was taken to the king's quarters ; there it lay, in 
the evening, upon a table, in the very room where the con- 
queror's supper had been prepared ; but the king ordered all 
who were in the chamber to go out, had his supper things re- 
moved else whither, and with every mark of respect, com- 
mitted the remains of the vanqnished to the care of Viscount 
de Turenne, his near relative. 

" On the one side, there was gilded armour, gloriously 
damasked, glittering in the sun ; painted lances covered with 
ribbons, with their banderolles dancing in the air ; rich coats of 

velvet, with broad lace, and galoons of gold and silver ; 

large and beautifully colored plumes waving on their crests ; 

scarfs magnificently embi'oidered and edged with long gold 

fringe, and all the young cavaliers carrying the ciphers and 
colors of their mistresses, as if they were marching to a 
carousal, and not on the point of giving battle." 

" On the Huguenot side, they arranged themselves in a line, 
and in a deep and solemn voice, sung the hundred and 
eighteenth Psalm ; then knelt while the minister d 'Amour, 
made a short but fervent prayer. 

" It is said this attitude was mistaken by the young cavaliers, 
who exclaimed : ' S'death ! they tremble ; the cowards are at 
confession.' The venerable minister drew his sword at the 
conclusion of his prayer, and mingled with the combatants." 

" The army led by Navarre, consisted of old soldiers inured 



Huguenot History. 107 

to toil and labor, whose mien was fierce and menacing ; un- 
combed, ill clothed, with their long buff coats all bespattered ; 
over their coarse threadbare clothes, having no other ornament 
than their trusty bilbo by their sides, and sound armour on 
their breasts, mounted on traveling horses, without hous- 
ings," &c. 

" After the battle, Navarre repaired to the castle of Coutras. 
Henry III, to restore the royal authority, endeavored to 
moderate the difference between his Catholic and Protestant 
subjects, reducing both to a dependence upon himself. 

" Henry granted peace to the Protestants on the most ad- 
vantageous conditions. They obtained the public exercise of 
their religion, except within two leagues of the court ; party 
chambers, consisting of an equal number of Protestants and 
Catholics, were elected in all the parliaments of the kingdom 
for the more equitable administration of justice." — Davila. 

There was for Henry III but one possible ally who might 
do him effectual service, and that was Henry of Navarre, and 
the Protestants. Henry III was a Catholic, and the prospect 
of an excommunication troubled him greatly if he had recourse 
to this party, and Catholicism was in a large majority in 
France. Henry of Navarj-e enlisted Swiss infantry and Ger- 
man cavalry, and being still supported by his nobility, and by 
the princes of the blood, he assembled an army of forty-two 
thousand men. With these two forces the two kings advanced 
to the gates of Paris, July, 1589, and were ready to crush the 
League. 

August 2, 1589, Henry III, tlie last king of the House of 
Valois, was assassinated. 



io8 The Records of Oxford. 



CHAPTER X. 

1589-1685. 

The death of Henry HI left the succession open to the king 
of Navarre, who as next heir to the crown assumed the gov- 
ernment under the title of Henry IV, The desertion of his 
troops obliged him to abandon the siege of Paris, and retire 
into Normandy. There he was followed by the forces of the 
League, and by the Duke of Mayenne. In this extremity 
Henry IV applied to the Queen of England. Elizabeth sent 
him a present of twenty -tv^'o thousand pounds, to prevent the 
desertion of the German and Swiss soldiers, and a reinforcement 
of four thousand men. He again marched towards Paris, and 
had almost taken the city by storm ; but the Duke of Mayenne 
entering it with his army, Henry thought it more prudent to 
retire. 

In 1590, soon after, Henry IV attacked the Duke of Mayenne 
at Ivri, and gained a complete victory. Henry's bearing on 
this occasion was truly heroic. " My lads," said he to his sol- 
diers, "if you should lose sight of your colors, rally towards 
this," pointing to a large white plume which he wore in his 
hat ; " you will always find it in the road to honor. God is with 
us ! " added he emphatically, drawing his sword, and rushing 
into the thickest of the enemy ; but when he perceived their 
ranks broken, and great havoc committed in the pursuit, his 
natural humanity and attachment to his countrymen returned, 
and led him to cry, " Spare my French subjects ! " forgetting 
that they were his enemies. — Davila, lib. xi. 

The Duke of Mayenne was urged to call an assembly of the 
states, in order to deliberate on the election of a king. The 
Catholic friends of Henry IV demanded of him now to de- 



NoTE. — Sully tells us wherever the battle raged there towered the 
white plume. 



Huguenot History. 109 

clare the sentiments of his religion, and their jealousy appeared 
to increase as he approached nearer to the full possession of 
his throne. 

Henry IV, soon after the taking of Dreux, solemnly made 
his abjuration at St. Dennis, and received absolution from the 
archbishop of Bourges. — Davila, hb. xiii. 

This course of Henry was highly agreeable to the French 
nation, though the more zealous Catholics suspected his sin- 
cerity. His Protestant allies, particularly the Queen of Eng- 
land, expressed much indignation at this interested change in 
his religion, though he was influenced by the celebrated Mar- 
quis de Rosni, afterward Duke of Sully, and prime minister to 
Henry IV. 

Henry was crowned with much solemnity at Chdrtres, and 
all promised a speedy pacification. The Duke of Mayenne 
retired from Paris. The Duke of Guise made peace, and 
Henry returned to Paris in triumph where lie was received 
with every possible mark of loyalty ! Ilenrj' now saw himself 
established in his kingdom. 

In 1594, while these events were taking place in France, 
war was still carried on with the Protestants in the Low 
Countries. Queen Elizabeth aided Prince Maurice with her 
power against Spain. 

The war against the Spanish forces in the Low Countries 
was still continued ; besides several bodies of Germans and 
Swiss, the states took into their service two thousand French 
veterans, disbanded by Henry IV, on the conclusion of the 
peace of Vervins ; and that prince generously supplied the re- 
public with money. 

In 1600 the two armies came to a general engagement at 
Nieuport, near Ostend. " The conflict was terrible. The field 
was obstinately disputed for three hours. The Spaniards were 
defeated with a loss of five thousand men by the valor of the 
English forces under Lord Vere, who led the van of the con- 



I lo The Records of Oxford. 

federates. A share of the honor was due under the military 
skill of Prince Maurice to a body of Swiss immediately under 
his command, who supported the English troops. 

" This victory was of the utmost importance to the United 
Provinces, as the defeat of their army must have been followed 
by the loss of their liberties and their final ruin as independent 
states." — Kussell, History of Modern Europe, vol. I. 

Note.— ' ' Lord Vere a man wliose Coat of Armour made more Re- 
nowned than his coat of Arms." 

"And whose personal Achievements in the field, especially at the 
Battle of Nieuport ennobled more than the high blood derived from 
his Ancestors, but his unstained piety gave him the highest char- 
acter of all." 

Sir Horace [Horatio] Vere, an English nobleman ; he was the defender 
of the Protestants in the Netherlands. 

"This noble Lord was one, that could as well wrestle with God, as 
fight with men, and may be thought to have gotten his victories upon 
his knees in the closet, before he drew his sword in the field. 

"And when he had overcome his enemies he could overcome himself 
also, being one of the humblest souls, in whom so much true worth 
lodged, that we have heard of."— Life of Lady Vere. Distinguished 
Christians of the Church Nobility and Gentry. London edition. 1683. 

The victories of Lord Vere were long remembered and honored by the 

English nation and by the Protestants of France and Netherlands. 

An epitaph upon the Right Honorable and Religious, the Lady Vere, 

wife to the most Noble, and Valiant Lord Horatio Vere, Baron Tilbury, 

who died at the advanced age of ninety years. 

Anno Christi, 1G71 . 

"Noble her self; more Noble, 'cause so neer 
To the tlu-ice Noble, and Victorious Vere. 
That Belgick Lion, whose loud fame did roar. 
Heard from the German to the British shoar. 
His Trophies she was Joyntur'd in (so say 
The Lawyers) Wives shine by their Husbands Ray. 
See therefore now, how by his side she stands, 
Tryumphing 'midst the Graves, those Netherlands. 
Rather in Heaven, those only we confess. 

Are truly called Th' United Provinces.'''' 

Charles Derby. 



Huguenot History. 1 1 1 

April 13, 159S, Henry lY secured to the Protestants their 
civil rights by the " Edict of Nantes, called the Edict of Peace," 
which confirmed to them the free exercise of their religion, 
and gave them equal claims with the Catholics to all offices and 
dignities. 

They were also left in possession of their fortresses, which 
were ceded to them for their security . This edict afforded to 
the Protestants a means of forming a kind of republic within 
the kingdom. 

In maintaining the Edict of Kantes Henry lY assured his 
Parliament that established laws should be respected. 

" You see me here in my cabinet, not as the kings, my pred- 
ecessors, nor as a prince who gives audience to ambassadors — 
but dressed in my ordinary garb as a father of a family, who 
would converse with his children. I know there have been 
parties in the Parliament, and that seditious preachers have been 
ejected. I will put good order into these people. I will shorten 
by the head all such as venture to foment faction. 

" 1 have leaped over the walls of cities, and I shall not be 
terrified by barricades. 

" I have made an edict, let it be observed. 

"My will must be executed, not interpreted." 

With all his errors, Henry lY was a great king, and did 
more for the prosperity of France than any monarch who had 
preceded him. 

Sully, his chief minister, thus describes him : 

"He was candid, sincere, grateful, compassioned, generous, 
wise, penetrating, and loved by his subjects as a father." 

Note. — " Nantes, the capital of ancient Brittany, is described as a 
quaint tumble-down old city, where the houses, with their upper stories 
projecting over the narrow streets, seemed to be tipsy and the streets crazy. 
In the old round-towered castle, which they now use as a barrack the 
good Henry of Navarre signed the famous Edict of Nantes." 



112 The Records of Oxford. 

In 1610 Henry assisted in the coronation of his queen, 
Mary de Medicis, and is assassinated the following day by 
Ravaillac. 

Jane d'Albret was the daughter of Henry. II, King of 
Navarre, and Marguerite, sister of Francis I, King of France, 
and was carefully educated in the Protestant faith from her 
childhood. She married Anthony of Bourbon, son to Charles, 
Duke of Yendome, and was the mother of Henry IV, King 
of France. 

" Jane of Navarre inhei'ited the genius and elegance of Mar- 
guerite, with acquirements far bej^ond that period. She pos- 
sessed the amiable and graceful attractions of domestic life in 
her cliaracter, having great simplicity and purity of manners ; 
she wrote with ease^ and spoke Latin and Spanish witli 
fluency. Men of talent and learning thronged her court." 

When Antliony of Bourbon, King of Navarre and Beam, had 
openly left the Protestants and joined the Princes of Guise, the 
Queen in disappointment retired to her own dominions on the 
northern slope of the Pyrenees. There with her son Henry, 
the Prince of Beam, and her daughter, tlie Lady Catharine, 
in the midst of her own subjects, she was studynig, more than 
any other of her age, the true welfare of her people, and in 

Note. — In 1604 Henry IV when he was informed of the death of his 
sister, Catharine de Bourbon (Duchess de Bar), exclaimed, "All ! all ! 
mother and sister ! " 

The Duchess de Bar was carried to Vendome, and buried in the 
tomb of her ancestors, by the side of her mother, Queen Jane of 
Navarre. — Sully's " Memoirs." 

jq-QTE. — The cradle Henry IV was rocked in, a great tortoise shell, is 
still kept at Pan in Beam. 

Note. — Navarre a small kingdom in the south of France. 

j^oTE. — The Queen of Navarre had the New Testament printed at 
her own expense, the Catechism and the prayers used in the Church 
of Geneva. The same were also translated into the Gascoin and printed 
at La Rochelle for the province of Contabria under the jurisdiction of 
Navarre. 



Huguenot History. 113 

educating her son soon to appear in history as the leader of 
the Huguenot party, and on the expiration of the Yalois line, 
to succeed to the throne of France as Henry the Fourth. She 
had already established the principles of the Keformation in 
her kingdom, upon which she hoped to see her son lay a 
foundation of a great and glorious career. 

The first preliminary devised by Catharine de Medici for 
confirming a pretended peace, which was only a ruse to more 
surely destroy the Protestants, was to send an envoy to 
Kochelle, in the King's name, to treat with the Queen of 
Navarre about the marriage between her son Henry and the 
King's sister, the Lady Marguerita, for which purpose he ex- 
tended to them an invitation to come to court, where tlie pro- 
posed marriage could be more fully concluded. 

Upon the earnest solicitation of the King the Queen of Na- 
varre went the March following (1572) from La Kochelle to the 
court, which was then at Blois, accompanied by a great retinue. 

The articles of marriage were concluded between the King's 
sister and the Prince of Navarre ; the King was to give his 
sister for her dowry three hundred thousand crowns, each crown 
being valued at four and .fifty shillings. — Life of Jane of 
Navarre. 

" Accordingly on May 6 she took her journey from Blois, and 
arrived on the 15th at Paris, to make suitable preparations for 
the marriage and the arrival of her son. She went from place 
to place in the city into several houses and shops in order to 
furnish herself with such things as were suitable to adorn the 
approaching marriage. 

" An Italian it is said sold to the Queen of Navarre poisoned 
perfumes (also perfumed gloves that were poisoned) and was 
afterward heard to boast of what he had done. 

She preserved her own chaste and ^simple style of dress, 
which might have been termed almost a censure on the cos- 
tumes of the court. 
15 



114 '^^^^ Records of Oxford 

" Soon after her arrival she fell sick of a continued fever 
and died June 9, Anno Christi, 1572."— Life of Jane of 
Navarre. London edition. 1683. 

While in Paris the Queen had written to Prince Henry. 

"My son," she concluded, "you have rightly judged from 
my letters, that their great object here is to separate you from 
me and from God Pi'ay earnestly to God, whose assist- 
ance you need at all times, but especially at the present ; and 
I too, will add my fervent prayer, that he will grant you in all 
your just desires." 

" As her strength was decaying, the Queen requested that a 
clergyman might be present in her sickness, to give her coun- 
sel from the Scriptures. She listened to the reading of the 
fourteenth to the completion of the seventeenth chapter of St, 
John's Gospel, and in conclusion to the thirty-first Psalm, in 
which the prophet, among other things, commends his spirit 
into the hands of God, because, said he, ' Thou hast redeemed 
me, O Lord God of truth ! ' If Jane of Navarre were a per 
feet pattern, nothing was ever suggested to lessen her, but 
that which was her true glory, her receiving the Reformation." 

" She both received it and brought her subjects to it. She 
not only reformed her court, but her whole principality, to 
such a degree that the golden age seemed to have returned 

Note. — Catharine de Bourbon, the sister of Henry IV, was alone in 
the court circle by her simplicity of manners and unostentatious plain 
ness in dress. The dresses, though of the richest material (for she 
encouraged the silk looms of France), were neither "flounced nor fur- 
belowed ; " she wore her hair cut as prescribed, even when other court 
ladies of rank in the reformed church refused. 

The simplicity of her life discovered itself in her pure, transparent 
complexion, the delicacy of which was heightened by the lawn kerchief 
that shaded her neck in spite of Marguerite de Valois' ridicule. 

The Lady Catherine married Charles, Duke de Bar. "He was the 
son of Lorraine, her former suitor. It would seem that tlie admiration 
which animated the father had been entailed with his fortunes upon 
the feon." 



Huguenot History. 115 

under her; or rather, Christianity appeared again with the 
purity and histre of its first beginnings." — Bishop Burnet, 
Essay on the Memory of Queen Mary, p. 29. 

The Queen of Navarre, Jeanned' Albret,who had gone to Paris 
in preparation for the marriage, had died there June 8, 1572. 

" It was in deep mourning that her son the King of Na- 
varre, arrived at court, attended by eight hundred gentle- 
men, all likewise in mourning. ' But,' says Marguerite de 
Valois herself, ' the marriage took place a few days afterwards 
with such triumph and magnificence as none others of my 
quality ; the King of Navarre and his troop having changed 
their mourning for very rich and fine clothes, and I being 
dressed royally, with crown and corset of tufted ermine, all 
blazing with crown-jewels, and the grand blue mantle with a 
train four ells long borne by three princesses, the people 
choking one another down below to see us pass.' The mar- 
riage was celebrated August 18, by the Cardinal of Bourbon, in 
front of the principal entrance of Notre-Dame." 

Note. — It may be of interest to some to observe the changes in the 
style of dress for the last three centuries. It is said "Marguerite of 
Valois, both before and after her marriage with the King of Navarre, 
though she required no aid of art, being singularly beautiful, and yet 
she often wore false hair and paint. One of the Queen of Navarre's 
gowns was black satin, covered with embroidery, the expense of which 
was from four to five hundred crowns, and many other costly gowns. 
The mourning at this period was black, white and gray, with violet or 
blue stockings." 

Marguerite being seized with a sudden devotion she presented to the 
church one of these gowns, adorned with gems of great value. 

Henry of Navarre wore at his marriage with Marguerite of Valois a 
uniform of pale, yellow satin, covered with the richest embroidery, 
wrought in relief, and decorated with pearls. 

King Henry at his second marriage with Mary de Medici was dressed 
in white satin, embroidered with gold and pearls. Mary of Medici, 
niece to the Great Duke of Tuscany, was extremely elegant in all her 
style of dress. 



1 1 6 The Records of Oxford. 

Henry IV was succeeded by his son Louis XIIT, during 
whose minority Mary de Medici, his mother, was appointed re- 
gent. Cardinal de Eichelieu was the minister of state, and a 
great favorite of Louis XIII. At this time the Huguenots were 
able to offer a powerful resistance, as they had become very 
numerous in the provinces. They still retained La Kochelle, 
which enabled them to continue a communication with 
England. 

Cardinal Richelieu, though a Catholic prelate, was not a 
bigot or a persecutor, but a statesman. He was as ready to 
enter into alliances with Protestant powers as with Catholic 
powers, for political purposes. Richelieu with his army and 
navy laid siege to La Rochelle in 1627, to increase the royal 
government. The siege continued fifteen months, as the city 
was supported by the English fleet, and by German recruits. 
La Rochelle from 30,000 inhabitants was reduced to 5,000, 
from famine. The possession of the city was given to the 
royal troops October 30, 1628. 

Mazarine, prime minister of France, was the successor of 
Richelieu. At the Mazarine palace he died in 1661, at the age 
of fifty-one years. " A few days before his death he was car- 
ried, in his chair, to the promenade, exquisitely dressed and 
rouged ; the courtiers ironically complimented him on his ap- 
pearance, telling him he never looked 'so fresh and ver- 
milion.' Mazarhie had completed his political career ; he had 
married his nieces to the first nobles in Europe, and amassed 
immense wealth. His love of fine paintings became a passion. 
His health was daily failing, and he consulted his physicians 
upon the nature of his malady, who frankly told him he could 
not live longer than two months. The cardinal, in his dress- 
ing-gown and nightcap, tottered to his gallery of pictures. 
Brienne, his friend, followed him ; ' he stood gazing upon them 
with hands clasped.' ' Look,' he exclaimed, ' look at that Cor- 
reggio ! this Yenus of Titian ! that Deluge of Carracci ! Oh, 



Huguenot History. 117 

my friend, I must quit all these. Adieu, dear pictures, that I 
loved so truly, that have cost me so much ! ' 'I shall never 
see them more where I am going.' " — The History of France, 
by M. Guizot and Madame Guizot de Witt. 

Madame de Maintenon, the Last Years of Louis XIV. 

By the Author of Mirabeau. 
a translation from the French (Madame de Maintenon.) 

Frangoise d'Aubigne was descended from an honorable and 
ancient family of France ; her grandfather, Theodore Agrippa 
d'Aubigne, was a Huguenot, and the devoted friend and com- 
panion of Henry IV. Her father. Constant d'Aubigne, had 
acquired consideration at court and wealth for his treachery to 
the Huguenots; his father disinherited him ; he was then de- 
tected in a treasonable correspondence with the English, and 
imprisoned by the government. 

Frangoise was born in the prison of the Conciergerie of JSf iort, 
1635. Her godfather was the celebrated Duke de la Roche- 
foucauld, her godmother was the daughter of the Baron du 
Neuillant, the governor of ISTiort. 

In great destitution were the parents of Frangoise. Madame 
de Villette, a sister of her father, and a Huguenot, brought 
them relief, removing the little Frangoise to her home. But 
when Constant d'Aubigne was transferred to a prison at 
Bordeaux the mother took Frangoise to share with her a prison 
life with her father. In 1639, after unwearied solicitations, 
Madame d'Aubign6 obtained her husband's enlargement, after 
which they embarked for Martinique, to make their fortunes 
in a new world of surroundings. 

During the voyage little Frangoise fell dangerously ill, and 
was at last laid out as dead. The body was just about to be 
committed to the sea when the mother, as she held it in a last 
passionate, parting embrace, felt a slight movement. "My 
child is not dead ! " she shrieked. " Her heart beats ! " The 



1 1 8 TJie Records of Oxford. 

little girl was put back into bed, and in few days was restored 
to health. 

By what trifles are the destinies of men and of nations de- 
cided ! Had not the mother's heart craved for yet another 
embrace, or had the sailor who was to have been the grave- 
digger of the sea been but a moment quicker, the edict of 
Nantes might never have been revoked, and the latter years of 
Louis the Fourteenth might have been wholly different. What 
wonderful events hang upon moments ! — upon some ap- 
parently insignificant life ! 

The mother of Francoise, who had herself been so schooled 
in adversity, desired to instil into the child's mind something 
of her own courage and fortitude. 

" One day while in Martinique the house took fire. Seeing 
little Francoise weep bitterly, Madame said reprovingly, ' I 
thought you had more courage. Why should you weep thus 
for the loss of a house ? ' ' It is not for the house I am weep- 
ing,' answered the child, quickly, ' but for my doll ! ' " 

The child is the father of the man — the mother of the 
woman. 

In those words are the germ of the future intensely selfish 
nature of Madame de Maintenon. 

In Martinique Constant d'Aubigne again acquired wealth, 
owning large plantations, but gambled them away and died. 
Madame d'Aubigne returned to France. Frangoise was again 
committed to the protection of Madame de Villette, who readily 
undertook the charge, and at once proceeded to train her little 
niece in the doctrines of the Reformed faith. 

" Years of poverty, of successive misfortune, of silent en- 
durance, of living in the shadow of life, had hardened and 
chilled Madame d'Aubigne's character into coldness and 
severity, beneath which her virtues and affections were con- 
cealed. Madame de Yillette, who had lived in the sunshine of 
life, was on the contrary, smiling, tender, loving, and so child- 



Huguenot History, 119 

like, the little Fi-angoise soon began to prefer this cheerful lady 
to the troubled, saddened mother, and to embrace all her teach- 
ings with the utmost docility. 

" One day Frangoise refused to accompany her mother to 
mass. Madame d'Aubigne with her usual energy at once 
appealed to Anne of Austria, to issue an order for the girl's 
restoration to her own custody. The order was granted, 
and the young Huguenot was handed over to her god-mother, 
the Countess de Neuillant, to be brought back to the Catholic 
faith. But Fran^oise was not yet to be converted, so as a pun- 
ishment for her contumacy she was set to perform the most 
menial offices, among others, to measure out the corn for the 
horses, and to look after a flock of turkeys . ' It was there, in 
the farm yard,' she used to say, 'I first began to reign.' " 

As not even these degradations could bend her firm spirit, 
she was consigned to a convent. Mademoiselle d'Aubigne, 
after a time, renounced her Protestant faith. 

Leaving her convent life, and her mother having died, 
" Mademoiselle d'Aubigne, after a training to wither the 
heart and to fill the soul full of bitterness, the flavor of which 
abides with us evermore. A childhood of privation is a poor 
preparation for a noble life ; little that is truly generous, 
tender and merciful ever comes from it, but nmch that is hard, 
cold, selflsh and hypocritical." 

"Mademoiselle d'Aubigne was beautiful, graceful, accom- 
plished, clever, spirituelle," and when sixteen years of age, she 
was married to the Abbe Scarron. 

After his death, Madame Scarron was reduced once more to 
a state of destitution, being deprived of her pension by the 
death of Anne of Austria. 

In 1669 the Maintenon estate was for sale ; the King pur- 
chased it, and bestowed it upon Madame Scarron, it being a most 
convenient residence for the royal children, and for herself, 
their guardian, the estate being in the near vicinity of Versailles. 



1 20 The Records of Oxford. 

" Madame de Maintenon erased from her carriage the arras 
of Scarron, substituting her own in their place — she had now 
assumed that title. Although she had been mixed up with the 
society of the Fronde, of which throughout his life Louis 
entertained the greatest horror, Louis, ill-educated himself, 
hated learned women. " It would appear that Madame de Main- 
tenon aspired to govern the mind of Louis XIV. Even 
as early as 1676, writing of Madame de Maintenon, Madame 
de Sevigne says, " Every thing is subject first to her empire." 

Louis XIII was succeeded by his son, Louis XIV, whose 
mother, Anne of Austria, was declared regent of the kingdom. 

The reign of Louis XIV was the greatest in French history, 
great in the grandeur of its King, the splendor of its court, 
the commanding talent of its generals and its ministers, the 
success in its arms, the nobleness of its literature. 

Marmontel narrates that throughout his life Louis XIV was 
always governed, either by his ministers or the ladies of his 
court. It would appear that no important act of that long 
reign emanated from the unprejudiced judgment of the 
monarch — the most absolute that ever reigned over France. 
Perhaps there is no more extraordinary history upon record 
than that of Madame de Maintenon at the court of Louis XIV, 
who governed by her influence one of the proudest sov- 
ereigns and through him the entire kingdom of France. 

In 1683 the Queen of Louis XIV, who was extremely fond 
of Madame de Maintenon, died in that lady's arms. From 
that hour Madame de Maintenon appeared to propose for her- 
self but one object in life — to become the wife of Louis XIV. 

Duke St. Simon's Testimony. 
" She brought to pass what our eyes have seen, but which 
posterity will refuse to believe. But what is very certain and 
very true is, that in the middle of the winter which followed 
the Queen's death, Louis XIV was privately married to Madame 
de Maintenon. 



Huguenot History. I2i 

" She had great remains of beauty, bright and sprightly eyes, 
an incomparable grace," says St. Simon, who detested her, " an 
air of ease and yet of restraint and respect, and a great deal 
of cleverness, with a speech that was sweet, correct, and in 
good terms, and naturally eloquent and brief." 

The marriage of Louis XIV to Madame de Maintenon was 
known only to a few persons at the French court, for Louis 
never pubhcly acknowledged her as his queen. 

He regarded her with great respect, and her opinion was 
sought by him on all occasions. 

Madame with her needlework now sat by him in all his con- 
sultations with his ministers of state, and he would very gal- 
lantly inquire of her at the end of these interviews : 

" What does your solidity think ? " 

And yet this brilliant long reign of seventy years of Louis 
XIY became sad and mournful to the French court. For the 
King kept up all his old state with all his untameable pride, for 
it was glory only he had sought, and yet with the weight of 
years his strength and spirit were gone. 

And Madame de Maintenon, though she had attained the 
summit of her earthly hopes in her marriage with Louis, 
would say : " No one could guess what a dreadful thing it was 
to have to amuse an unamuscable king." — The last record of 
Madame de Maintenon. 

October 22, 1685, the King struck a blow against her great- 
ness and prosperity, from which, even at the present day, 
France has never wholly recovered. It was on that day that, 
yielding at last to the solicitations of Madame de Maintenon 
and Father La Chaise, his confessor, he revoked the Edict of 
Nantes, and blotted out all the previous glory of his reign. 



Note — Pere la Chaise, a French Jesuit, confessor of Louis XIV, born 
August, 1624 ; died January, 1709. He promoted the Revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes. The King built for him a country-seat called 
"Mount Louis." Its gardens are now the cemetery Pere la Chaise, iu 
Paris . 

l6 



122 The Records of Oxford. 

Duke St. Simon, a courtier of Louis XIV, writes of the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, though himself a Catholic, 
that it was ruinous to the interests of France. 

EXTKACT FROM BiSHOP BuKNEt's HiSTORY OF HiS OW^N TiME. 

He writes : " While 1 was in Paris I took a little house, and 
lived by myself as privately as I could until the beginning of 
Auo;ust, wdien I went to Italv. 

" I found the Earl of Montague at Paris, with whom 1 con- 
versed much, and from him I had knowledge of the affairs of 
the court that the king had been for many years weakening 
the interests of the Protestants." 

Rouvigny, who was the deputy-general of the churches, 
(known at the Enghsh Court as Earl of Galway still remained 
firm to the Huguenots ;) he told me that he was long deceived 
in his opinion of the king. 



CHAPTER XL 



Colonial History. 

Hon. William Stoughton, of Dorchester, Hon. Joseph 

Dudley, of Roxbury, contemplating a settlement, petitioned 

the General Court in respect to the ownership of lands in the 

Nipmuck country, and the rights of the Indians in them. 

The Court replied to this petition May 11, 1681, as follows : 

"The Court judgeth it meete to grant this motion, and doe 
further desire & impower the wor'pfll Wm. Stoughton & 
Joseph Dudley Esqrs. to take particular care & inspection 
into the matters of the land in the Nipmug Country, w^hat 



Colonial History. 123 

titles are pretended to by ludeans or others, and the validity 
of them, and make retnrne of what they find therein to this 
Conrt as soone as may be. — Mass. Col. Rec., Y, 315. 

They fnrther reported, October 16, 1681 : 

" Since which time, in September last, perceiving a bet. 
ter vnderstanding amongst them, wee warned seuerall of 
the principall claymers to attend vs into the country 
& travajle the same in company with ns as farr & as 
much as one weeke would allow us & find that the southerue 
part, clajmed by Black James and company is capable of good 
setlement, if not too scant of meadow, though vncerteine 
what will fall w'thin bounds if our lyne be to be quaestioned." 
— Mass. Col. Rec, V, 328. 

The boundary between the Massachusetts and Connecticut 
colonies was at this time unsettled. 

The same commissioners, Stoughton and Dudley, were au- 
thorized by the General Court to treat with the Indians for 
that purpose, and " to agree with them upon the easiest terms 
that may be obtejned." — Ibid, 329. 

The action of the Court appears limited to the Nipmuck 
lands. On February 18, 1681-2, another report was made by 
the commissioners to the Court, stating that they had agreed 
for all the land belonging to the Hassanaraesit and Natick In- 
dians. 

" lying fower miles northward of the present Springfield 
road, & southward to that, haue agreed betweene Blacke James 
& them, of which wee aduised in our late returne, wee haue 
purchased at thirty pounds money & a coate. 

" The southern halfe of sajd country we haue purchased of 
Blacke James & Company, for twenty pounds." — 1 Mass. Col. 
Rec, V, 342. 

Stoughton and Dudley being approved by the Court, one 
thousand acres of land were voted to each for their " great care 
& pajnes." 



1 24 The Records of Oxford. 

These grants were surveyed by John Gore, at Manchang, in 
cue phit, and confirmed to Stouglitoii and Dudley June 4, 
1685. 

In act of the General Court in confirminfj this grant it is 
described, viz.: " Conteyning 1800 acres with allowance of ad- 
ditions of two hundred more next adjoyning to compleat the 
same to 2000 acres.... in the Nipniug Counti'y, at a place 
called Marichouge [Manchaug] the line being marked with 
rainging markes in the corners with S. D." [the initials of 
grantees]. — 2 Ibid, 343. 3 Ibid, 488. 

" According to the earliest plan in the Oxford Reckords, 
' Manchaug Farm ' measured 674 rods on its east and west 
lines, and 434 rods on its north and south lines. This included 
both Stoughton and Dudley's shares. A later plan, made after 
the incorporation of the town of Dudley, in 1731, gives 
'Manchaug Farm' as 1100 acres, the property of the 'heirs 
of Mr. Dudley,' and 'belonging' to Oxford. A still later 
plan made in 1756 shows 1020 acres as in Oxford, and belonging 
to Thomas Dudley — and adjoining it on the east ; in Sutton, is 
shown the balance of the plat as ' now llichard Waters,' and 
others." 

At Natick, May 19, 1682, these deeds, dated Feb. 10, 
1681-2, were delivered. The commissioners reported to the 



Note. — On the back of the original deed is the following: viz. 
" Tliat on the twentieth day of May 1685 full and peassable possession 
and seizure, of the Lands within mentioned to be granted with the ap- 
purtenances was given by Benjamin the brother of Black James and 
Simon Wolomp son of the sayd Black James by delivery of a turffe of 
the Land called Mayanexet upon a small twigg, in the name of the 
whole, unto the within named William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley, 
which was so done under a tree growiug on the sayd Mayanexet land, 
and then marked S. D. in the presence of us." 

Whose names are underwritten. 

John Blackwith, 
robt. purdour. 

Note. — The Huguenots in the Nipmuck country. 



Colonial History. 125 

court on May 27, 1682, that they had purchased "from the 
principall men of Naticke ... of a parcell of remote 
& wast land, belonging to said Indians, lying at the vtmost 
westerly bounds of Naticke, and, as wee are informed, is for 

quantity about acres, more or lesse, being mean land." 

These deeds received the confirmation of the Court. — Ibid, 361. 
The first deed was executed for the consideration of thirty 
pounds, and its first signature was that of Waban, who was 
chief at Natick. Attached to the same deed were twenty-two 
added signatures. In tlie second deed, executed for twenty 
pounds, was the signature of Black Jatnes of Chaubunagun- 
gamaug, followed by twenty-nine other signatures, " all that 
part of the Nipmug country, . . . lying and being beyond 
the great ryuer called Kuttatuck, or Nipmug [Blackstone] 
Ryver, and betweene a rainge of marked trees, beginning at 
sajd riuer and running south east till it fall vpon the south 
lyne of the sajd Massachusets colony on the south, and a 
certaine imaginary lyne fowre miles on the north side of the 
road, as it now Ijeth, to Springfeild on the north, the sajd great 
riuer Kuttatuck or Nipmuck on the eastward, and the sajd 
patent lyne on the westward." — Mass. Col. liec, Y, 361. 

First Deet>. 

" To all Christian People to whom this present Deed shall 
come ; 
"Know ye, that we Waban, Pyambobo, John Awassawog, 
Thomas Awassawog, Samuel Awassawog, John Awassa- 
wog, Jr., Anthony Tray, John Tray, Peter Ephraim, JS'ehe- 
miah James, Rumeny Marsh, Zackery Abraham, Samuel 
Neaucit, Simon Sacomit, Andrew Pittyme, Ebenezer Pegin, 
John Magnaw, James Printer, Samuel Acompanit, Joseph 
Milion, and Samuel Cocksquamion, Indian natives, and natural 
descendants of the ancient proprietors and inhabitants of the 
Nipmuck country (so called) and lands adjacent within the 



126 The Records of Oxford. 

Colony of Massachusetts, in New England, for and in consid- 
eration of the sum of thirty pounds, current money of New 
England, to us in hand, at and before the ensealing and de- 
livery of these presents, well and truly paid by William 
Stoughton, of the town of Dorchester, Esq., and Joseph Dud- 
ley, of the town of Roxbury, Esq., both within the Colony of 
Massachusetts, the receipt of which valuable sum we do hereby 
ackno.wledge ourselves therewith fully satisfied, have granted, 
bargained, and sold unto said William Stoughton and Joseph 
Dudley, their heirs and assigns, forever, all the lands lying 
within the said limits or bounds, be they more or less. In 
witness whereof, we have hereunto put our hands and seals 
this 10th day of February, Anno Domini, one thousand six 
hundred and eighty-one, and in the four-and-thirtieth year of 
the reign of our Sovereign Lord, King Charles the Second, 
over England," &c. 

" Signed, sealed, and dehvered in presence of us, 

Samuel Ruggles, Sen., 
Daniel Morse, 
Samuel Gookin, 
John Allen, 
Obadiah Morse." 

" Waban, X his mark and seal. 

Pyambobo, u u 

John Awassawog, " " 

Samuel Awassawog, m " " 

Samuel Bowman, li " " 

John Awassawog, Jr., Y " " 

Anthony Tray, A " " 

Thomas Tray, 
Benjamin Tray, P 
Jethro, B 
Joseph Ammon, Jo 
Peter Ephraim, ho 



4( 


a 


<( 


<( 


(( 


(C 


(( 


(( 


a 


a 



Colonial History. 127 

Andrew Pittyme, An his mark and seal. 

Nehemiah, " " 

Zackery Abraham, R " " 

Samuel Neaucit, M " " 

Thomas Waban, m " " 

George Moonisco, G " " 

Eleazer T. Pegin, " " 

Simon Sacomit, " " 

Great Jacob Jacob, " " 

Elisha Milion, O, " " 

In the second deed is the following : "All that part of the 
sajd Nipmug country . . , lying & being on the south 
part of the sajd colony of the Mattachnsets, beyond the great 
riuer, . . . bounded with the Mattachnsets patent line 
. . on the south, and certeine marked trees, beginning at 
the sajd riuer aad ruuing south east, till it strike vpon the 
bounds the of sajd patent line; on the north, the said great 
riuer ; on the east, and coming to a point on the west." — 1 
Mass. Col. Rec, Y, 362-365. 

Feb., 1681-2. The commissioners reported to the Court, 
" The whole tract in both deeds conteyned is in a forme of a 
trjangle & reduced to a square, conteyneth a tract about fifty 
miles long and twenty miles wide." — Ibid, 342. 

In the second deed there was a reservation of five miles 
square, to the native Indians, which might be chosen in two 
separate tracts of land. The first was on the Quinebaug river 
at Maanexit, three or four miles southerly of Chaubunagun- 
gamaug. The other tract of land, four or five miles south- 
easterly of Maanexit, in the present town of Thomj)son. — 1 
Mass. Col. Rec, V, 488. 

Most of the first reservation was subsequently conveyed to 
Dudley or his heirs, and a part of the land was incorporated in 
the town which received his name. 

The second deed was of the same date, the same territory 



128 The Records of Oxford. 

iiicliulcd, with tlie consideration of twenty pounds lawful 
money of New England, making fifty pounds as the full pay- 
ment for the relinquishment of the Indian title to the tract of 
country thus conveyed, but had a reservation, viz.: "Reserv- 
ing always unto ourselves, our heirs and assigns, out of the 
above said grant, a certain tract of land live miles square, at 
such two places as we shall choose, to be wholly at our own 
use and dispose." This reservation was at " Chanbunagunga- 
niaug, surveyed in October, 1684, to Black James and others. 
It extended west from Ohaubunagungamaug pond (from which 
the Indian town here took its name), over Maancxit river 
(French river). Nearly all this tract, with other lands be- 
tween the towns of Oxford and Woodstock, became the prop- 
erty of Joseph Dudley, and afterwards fell to his sons, the 
Hon. Paul and William Dudley. Part of this Indian land is 
now within the limits of Thompson, Ct., and part in Dudley." 
Second deed, signed sealed and delivered in presence of, 

William Parker, 
Isaac Newell, 
John Gove, 
Samuel Ruggles, Jr., 
Peter (his X mark) Gardiner, 
Ralph Brodhurst. 

Black James, TJ and seal. 

Sam Jaco, E " 

Benjamin, O " 

Simon Wolamp, Lo " 

Wolowa Nonck, F 
Pe Pey Pegans, ■ " 

Poponi Shant, Ts " 

Cotoosowk, son of 
Wolompaw, by his order, 
Wabequola, Wah 
Siebquat, his mark, S 



Colonial History. 129 

A grant of land was made to Robert Thompson in the Nip- 
mug country, as follows : 

" This Court, being informed by our agents, now in Eng- 
land, of the good will & friendship of 'Maj Robert Thompson, 
of London, & his readiness vpon all occasions to be assistants 
to them in the service of this colony, wherein they are, accord- 
ing doe, by way of gratuity, give vnto the said Major 
Thompson & his heires, fine Inmdred acres of land in the Nip- 
mug country, to be lajd out, to him w'th all reasonable con- 
venience. Dated May IGth, 1683." — 1 Mass. Col. Rec, Y, 
409. 

Major Robert Thompson, who is mentioned in this grant, 
had been for a length of time a resident of Boston, New 
England. 

He was a member of the first corporation established in 
England, by an act of Parliament July 19, 1649, for the 
Propagation of the Gospel among the Indians of New Eng- 
land, and when the Hon. Robert Boyle resigned the office of 
president of the society, he was succeeded by Major Thompson. 

He received a special grant of five hundred acres of land 
from Massachusetts, besides liis share of the grant for Oxford, 
in 1683, in acknowledgment of his good will and friendship 
for the colony. This grant was afterward laid out in the ter- 
ritory EAST of Woodstock, whicii became the north part of Kil- 
lingly. In 1731 the General Assembly of Connecticut granted 
to Joseph Thompson, Esq., of the Inner Temple, London, 
grandson and heir of the said Robert Thompson, Esq., of the 
parish of Stoke, Newington, deceased, two thousand acres, 

Note. — Governor Gurdan Saltonstall, in behalf of his great grand- 
father, Sir Richard Saltonstall, owned one thousand acres here. 

Josiah Wolcott, of Salem, had two thousand acres here, formerly the 
property of Thomas Freake. The first sale of land in this tract was by 
this Mr. "Wolcott and his wife Mary (Freake) "Wolcott, of Salem, to 
Josiah Sabin, April 10, 1716. 

17 



1 30 The Records of Oxford. 

near tlie grant before to liis grandfatlier, wliicli, with the five 
hunclt-ed as aforesaid, making two thousand five hundred acres, 
was given in remembrance of the vahiable services of Major 
Thompson. In 1730, "The North Parish of Killinglj" was, 
in honor to Major Thompson, clianged to Thompson's Parish. 
In 1785 it was again changed to Thompson. 

The grant for Oxford, Mass'tts, was mr.de May 16 — 1683. 

"Tliis court hauing information that some gentlemen in 
England are desirous to remove themselves into this colony, 
& (if it may be) to setle themselues vnder the Massachnsetts ; 
for the incouragement of such persons, and tliat they may haue 
some from among themselues, according to their motion, to as- 
sist & direct them in such a dcsigne, this Court doth grant to 
Major Robert Thompson Will jam Stoughton and Joseph 
Dudley, Esq., and sucli othei-s as they shall associate to them, 
a tract of land in any free place, conteyning eight miles square, 
for a towneship, tliey settling in the sayd place w'thin fower 
yeares, thirty familjes vfe an able orthodox minister, and doe 
allow to the sayd towneship freedom from country rates for 
fower years from the time aboue Ijmitted" — May 16, 1683." 
— Mass. Col. Ilec, vol. Y, p. 408. 

" The plan, a copy of which is now in the town clerk's oftice, 
comprehended forty-one thousand two hundred and fifty acres, 
or a little less than sixty-five square miles, and was two thou- 
sand one hundred and fourteen rods, or six and two-thirds miles 
on the easterly side ; three tliousand three hundred and forty 
rods, or about ten and a half miles on the southerly ; one thou- 
sand nine hundred and sixty-eight rods, or about six miles on 
the westerly ; and three thousand two hundred and sixteen 
rods, or about ten miles on the northerly. The description in 
the deed of division — hereafter described — begins at the 
south-west corner of Worcester, which was near the present 
village of Auburn, and from thence the line ran nearly south, 
to the north-west corner of Mr. Dudley's grant of one thou- 



Colonial History. 131 

sand acres before alluded to,* and thence south fifteen degrees 
east, bj the west line of said farm to a point about one and a 
quarter miles south-westerly of the village of West Sutton, 
and a mile and a half west of Manchaug pond, known as 
' Manchaug Corner' — thence west fifteen degrees south, to a 
point a little north of Peter pond in the easterly part of 
Dudley, and thence continuing westerly, crossing the Quine- 
baug riv^er to a point in the vicinity of Sandersdale, in the 
easterly part of Southbridge, thence northerly to a point about 
two miles westerly of Charlton city, on the Sturbridge line, 
thence easterly, bearing northerly, to the south-west corner of 
Worcester. 

" These lines enclosed, besides the present town of Oxford, 
nearly the whole of Charlton, about one-fourth of Auburn, 
one-fifth of Dudley, and three or four square miles of the 
north-eastern portion of Southbridge. 

" Through this tract there ran, due north and south a ' way,' 
twenty rods in width, called ' the common way.' The design 
of this unusual provision can only be conjectured, but as it is 
called on an old plan the 'proprietors' common way,' it 
was a reserve for the purpose of access to the several allot- 
ments of the lands west of the village. We find no sub- 
sequent allusion to it in the records, and later it is believed, 
it became a part of the village territory, and its western lines 
the boundary. This dividing line cut off from the main grant 
eleven thousand two hundred and fifty acres of the eastern 
portion, a tract six and two-thirds miles long, and two and 
one-half miles wide, which was given to the (planters) for a 
' Village,' or a general Plantation. 

•' The remaining thirty thousand acres was divided into five 
equal parts, the division lines running easterly and westerly. 
These parts were allotted as follows : The nortliernmost to 

*The Huguenots iu the Nipmuck country. 



132 ' TJie Records of Oxford. 

Robert Thompsoiij the second to Daniel Cox, the third to Wil- 
liam Stonghton, the fourth to Jolm Blackwell, and the south- 
ernmost to Joseph Dudley. Mr. Cox's portion is subdivided 
on the pLan between Blackwell, Freak and Cox. All the 
bounds mentioned in this deed were of a transient nature — 
marked trees, a heap of stones, or a stake, constituting them 
all except one, which is permanent, and this was at the north- 
east corner of the natural pond at the present Hodges' vil- 
lage. This bound marked ' the village line,' as it was called 
Mr, Blackwell' s north line joined the village line at this point, 
so that the pond was in the north-eastern angle of his portion, 
and is called on the plan referred to, ' Blackwell's pond.' On 
another plan of early date his share is designated as now 
' Papillon's,' and on another later as ' Wolcut's and Wil- 
liams'.' " 

The following letter from Dr. Cox, of England, to Governor 
Bradstreet, dated "London, October 10, 1684. 



Note. — Josiali Wolcott, Esq., a gentleman in his time distinguished 
in the history of the town — as was Mr. Williams, both were grandsons 
of Peter Papillon of Boston. 

Note. — The deed of division gives the Indian name to the pond 
which was " Augutteback." 

Note. — The deed of division is a document of historical interest, and 
is now in possession of the New York Historical Society. It was pre- 
sented by Charles Welford, Esq., of Loudon, in tlie year 1872. This 
deed is on parchment, and elegantly executed, and is in good preserva- 
tion, the prominent words and phrases in old English German text. 
In size its length is two feet three inches, and two feet five inches in 
width ; it is closely written in a legible hand . 

Attached to the instrument are five loops of parchment, bearing only 
the remains of seals in wax at the bottom of the parchment like 
pendants. 

The left hand seal bears the name of Joseph Dudley, and the second 
William Stoughton, and the fifth has the name of John Blackwell. 

On the back of the document are the signatures of witnesses, viz.: 
Samuel Witty, Edward Thomas, Daniel Bondet, J. B. Tuflfean and Wil- 
liam Blackwell. 



Colonial History. 133 

" Divers persons in England and Ireland, gentlemen, citizens, 
and others, being inclined to remove themselves into foreign 
parts, where they may enjoy, without interruption, the public 
exercise of the Christian religion, according to what they ap- 
prehend to be of Divine institution, have prevailed with Mr. 
Blackwell to make your country a visit, and inquire whether 
they may be there welcome, and which they may reasonably 
expect — that liberty they promise themselves and others, who 
will attend their motion." 

Among the associates of these three gentlemen whose names 
appear in the grant for Oxford, were Doctor Daniel Cox, 
Captain John Blackwell, of London, and Thomas Freake, of 
Hannington, in the county of Wilts, England. 

It would appear that these gentlemen were Puritan Dis- 
senters, who designed to remove and settle permanently in this 
country, but they were deterred by a favorable change in Eng- 
land in political and church affairs by the death of Charles II, 
and the short reign of James II, and William III succeeding 
to the throne of England, giving to England a constitution pro- 
tecting the rights of tlie people. 

On the petition of these grantees, in 16S5, the General 
Court extended the time for settling upon this grant the 
thirty families, as follows : 

"In answer to the motion and request of William Stoughton 
and Joseph Dudley, Esq., on behalf of Major Thompson and 
themselves, desiring this Court's favor to enlarge the time of 
their grant of their plantation, this Court do enlarge the time 
for settling that plantation therein mentioned, the space of 
three years from this day. January, 1685." — See Kecords of 
General Court, vol. V, p. 594. 



1 34 The Records bf Oxford. 

CHAPTER XII. 

"The Huguenot's Farewell." 

"And I obey — I leave their towers 
Unto the stranger's tread ; 
Unto the creeping grass and flowers, 
Unto the fading pictures of the dead. 

"I leave their shields to slow decay, 
Their banners to the dust; 
I go, and only bear away 

Their old majestic name — a solemn trust. 

" I go up to the ancient hills 
Where chains may never be ; 
Where leap in joy the torrent rills, 

Where man may worship God, alone and free. 

" There shall an altar and a camp, 
Impregnably arise; 
There shall be lit a quenchless lamp, 
To shine unwavering through the open skies, 

'' And song shall 'midst the rocks be heard, 
And fearjess prayer ascend ; 
While thrilling to God's most Holy Word, 
The mountain pines in adoration bend. 

'' And there the burning heart no more, 

Its deep thought shall suppress; 

But the long buried truths shall pour 

Free currents thence amidst the wilderness. 

"Then fare thee well, my mother's bower. 
Farewell, my father's hearth ! 
Perish my home ! whence lawless power 
Hath rent the tie of love to native earth. 

" Perish ! let death-like silence fall, 
Upon the lone abode ; 
Spread fast, dark ivy — spread thy pall ! 
I go up to the mountains, with my God." 

Mrs. Hemans. 



The Edict of Najttes. 135 

At the revocation of the Edict of Nantes 1685, many of tlie 
French exiles from Normandy, LannjuedoC; and other parts of 
France, repaired to England and Ireland. In London they 
were received with great kindness. Here the French artisans 
commenced trades in silk, tapestries, line linens and the build- 
ing of ships, and reached great success in other commercial de- 
partments. 

" The Episcopal church is not without its own traditions of 
amity with the Huguenots. In the closing years of the six- 
teenth century the silk looms of the French and Flemish 
refugees filled the crjpt of Canterbury Cathedral, and to this 
day the descendants of the persecuted people maintain their 
worship beneath the roof of that ancient and accredited home 
of Anglican religion." — Wm. R. Huntington, D. D. 

The Protestant countries of Europe, England, Holland, 
Germany and Switzerland, extended their sympathy and hospi- 
tality to the Huguenots. 

" The cordial understanding that existed between the Re 
formed Churches of France and the Church of England, dated 
from the time of Calvin." 

On their part the English Reformers showed no less cor- 
diality toward Calvin and other Continental divines, freely 
acknowledging the validity of their orders, and inviting their 
counsel and concurrence in the most important measures. 

The Church of England extended to them a generous wel- 
come. Bristol next to London presented great attractions to 
the French refugees, for here they enjoyed the favor and 
patronage of the Bishop, Sir Jonathan Trelawney, and a church 
offered them for French service. — Dr. Baird. 

Many refugees escaped to England without being able to 
secure any portion of their estates. For these provision was 
already secured. There was a balance that remained of a fund 
raised some few years before by contributions throughout 
England for the relief of French Protestants. Additional 



1 36 The Records of Oxford. 

benefactions were added in April, 1686. The fund thus con- 
tributed amounted to the sum of a quarter of a million pounds 
sterling, known as the Royal Bounty. A royal letter or brief 
enjoining these collections was necessary in order to their le- 
gality, but as neither Charles 11 nor James II had any sym- 
pathy in the movement, it was done reluctantly. Refugees 
were assisted by the committee that dispensed the Royal 
Bounty, or by the consistory of the French church in London. 

" A brief for a collection on behalf of the Protestant 
refugees, was issued by King William III, in the year 1609. 
The proceeds amounting to nearly twelve thousand pounds, 
were intrusted as usual to the Chamber of the city of London, 
for safe keeping. From this fund disbursements were made 
by the Chamberlain, upon the order of the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, Sir William Ashurst, and others composing the 
Committee." 

In the early part of the seventeenth century it would ap- 
pear from the history of the Church of England of that time 
that the French divines were held greatly in favor by the 
English church, as extracts from an ancient " Treatise," by 
Bishop Hall will establish their relations of church sympathy. 
Bishop Hall refers to Dr. Prideaux, of Oxford, and Dr. 
Primrose of the French chui'ch, in London. 

While many of the French exiles were leaving the Old 
World and abandoning their homes, they sought protection 
and new homes on the shores of New England. " America 
was regarded by the wandering Huguenot as a blissful home," 
and no inconsideiable number came to this country. 

Mrs. Lee states with great truthfulness : 

" In viewing tlie refugees, we are not to lose sight of the 
peculiar circumstances under which they fled to this country ; 
— whole families together, women tenderly educated, and un- 
accustomed to hardship, ' men of relined and cultivated minds.' 
' Some few were able to secure a portion of their wealth, others 



The Huguenots in Boston. 137 

escaped with only their lives.' But they all brought with them 
those accomplishments and mental acquisitions which they had 
gained in polished society. Wherever the Huguenots made a 
settlement they were among the most estimable citizens." 

Dr. Snow, in his history of Boston, states that " during the 
summer of 1686 a number of vessels arrived at that port, hav- 
ing on board French refugees. 

" Many of whom were of the company who came to Kew 
Oxford, and had left England in reference to a settlement on 
that grant for a township." 

Thursday, July 5th. On this day Foy arrives. Several 
gentlemen came over with Foy, some of them with estates. — 
Diary of Samuel Sewell, vol. 1, p. 219. 

Gabriel Bernon arrived in Boston July 5, 1688, in the ship 
Dolphin, John Foy, master, with a company of forty persons. 

Bernon certifies he paid the passage of over forty persons to 
America. Bernon ship'd himself with his family, servants, 
and associates, with Capt. Foye and also with Capt. Ware. 

Foy did not sail from Gravesend before April 26, 1688, 
when Bernon signed a contract with Pierre Cornilly. — Bernon 
Papers. 

Bernon arrived in London from Amsterdam early in the year 
1687. 

Here he was introduced to Mr. Robert Thompson by a 
French refugee. 

Mr. Thompson was the president of the Society for Promot- 
ing and Propagating the Gospel in New England. 

The General Court of Massachusetts had granted to a com- 
pany, organized with Robert Thompson at its head, a large 
tract of land, eight miles square, for the site of a settlement in 
New Oxford, in the Nipmuck country. No settlement had 
as yet been made. Bernon was made a member of this 
society for propagating the gospel among the Indians, and was 
ofiered a share in the company's Massachusetts lands, and be- 
18 



138 The Records of Oxford. 

came the founder of Oxford. Isaac Bertrand du Tuffean, a 
refugee from Poitou, hearing of Bernon's plans, offered to 
proceed to New England, obtain a grant, and coinmence a 
plantation. Bernon advanced money for the settlement. 

There was a French congregation in Boston established in 
1685 ; a French church was erected in 1715 on School street. 
Rev. Laurent Van den Bosch was the first minister of the 
French congregation in Boston, having removed from Holland 
to England ; he conformed to the English church, and received 
a license from the Bishop of London. Mr. Yan den Bosch 
was not received favorably in Boston. He was succeeded by 
Rev. David de Bonrepos, who came from the island of St. 
Christopher to Boston in 1686, but subsequently in 1687 re- 
moved to New Rochelle, Staten Island, and New Paltz, in the 
New Yor'< province. Rev. Pierre Daille came to Boston in 
1696, from New York, where he had been the French minister. 
Mr. Daille was possessed of great learning ; he wrote Latin 
fluently. 

The English sometimes attended the French church, as Rev. 
Pierre Daill6 was a favorite in society, but some of the English 
Puritans could not be pleased when a liturgy formed a part of 
the church service, or with any observance of Christmas or Easter. 

In the famous diary of Samuel Sewell there is the following 
item : 

" This day I spake with Mr. Newman about his partaking 
with the French Church on the 25th of December on account 
of its being Christmas day, as they abusively call it." 

Yet the excellent Cotton Mather said : 

" 'Tis my hope that the EngHsh Churches will not fail in 
Respect to any that have endured hard things for their faith- 
fulness to the Son of God." 



Note. — Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. 1, p. 491. 

Note.— A large folio French Bible was presented to the French 
Protestant Church of Boston by Queen Anne. 



The Huguenots in Boston. \y\ 

In the French church after the benediction the congregation 
was dismissed with an injunction to remember the poor as 
thej passed the alms cliest at the church door. 

The will of Peter Daille, of Boston, clerk, is on record in 
the Probate Office of Suffolk County, Boston. 

In respect to his funeral, there is a " restriction that there 
be no wine at my funeral, and that none of my wife's re- 
lations have mourning clothes furnished them except gloves, 
and a request that ' all ministers of the Gospel within the sd 
Town of Boston and to the Rev. Mr. Walter of Eoxbury 
shall have scarves and gloves, as well as my bearers.' " 

The following bequests : 

" I give all my French (and Latin) Books to the French 
Church in Boston (where I have been a Teacher) as a Library 
to be kept for the use and benefit of the Ministers "—Vol II 
p. 238. ■ ' 

" Item : I give and bequeath to my loving wife Martha 
Daille, the sum of Three hundred and fifty pounds in Province 
bills or silver equivalent thereto, and my negro man serv' 
named Kuffy, and also all my plate, cloaths, household goods 
and furniture, to hold the same, to her the s'l Martha Daille, 
her heirs executors admin" and assigns forever. 

" Item: I give devise and bequeath unto my loving Brother Paul 
Daille (in Amsfort) in Holland and to his heirs and assigns for- 
ever all the residue of my estate both real and personal where- 
soever the same is lying, or may be found. 

" I give five pounds to old Mr. John Rawlins, French School- 
master. 

" Ult" : I do hereby nominate and appoint my (good friend 
M"- James Boudoin the sole) executor of this my last Will and 
Testament. 

Note.— Mr. Daill6 was married three times. His first wife Esther 
Latonice, died Dec. 1696. 



140 The Records of Oxford.^ 

" In Witness whereof I have hereunto put my hand and 
seal the day and year first within written. 

"Daille." (Seal). 
" Witnesses : 

" Benjamin Wadswoeth, 

" Phebe Manley, 
" Martha Willis." 

Offered for probate, May 31, 1715. 

The date given of the notice of his death in the Boston 
News Letter of May 23, 1715: 

" On Friday morning last, the 20th current, Dyed here the 
Reverend Mr. Peter Daille, Pastor of the French Congrega- 
tion, aged about 56 years. He was a person of great Piety, 
Charity, affable and courteous Behaviour, and of exemplary 
life and Conversation, much Lamented, especially by his Flock, 
and was Decently Interred on the Lord's Day Evening, the 
22d Instant." 

Rev. Andre Le Mercier, a graduate from the Academy of 
Geneva, while in London, was invited to come to Boston by 
the French church, and one hundred pounds per year promised 
him. Le Mercier was a native of Caen, Normandy. 

Soon after the arrival of the French minister Le Mercier a 
small brick church was erected on School street upon the land 
which had been purchased with King William's gift. Mr. Le 
Mercier was the minister of the French church for thirty-four 
years until 1748. 

In 1730, O. S. 

Mr. Daniel Johonnot, 
Le Mercier, 
Andrew Sigourney, 

Note — In 1715 Andrew Faneuil, James Bowdoin, Daniel Johonnot 
and Andrew Sigourney were influential members in the church, and 
each at his death left a generous bequest to the minister of the French 
church. 



Fre?ich Settlemenfof Oxford. 14! 

Mr. Martin Brimmer, 
John Petel, 
Adam Duckeran, 
petitioned the General'Conrt of Mass. Baj, praying the Court 
to confer on them the rights and privileges of denizens or Free 
born subjects of the King of Great Britain or otherwise as the 
Court shall see meet for reasons mentioned. 

The prayer was so far granted as that the petitioners shall 
within this Province hold and enjoy all the privileges and im- 
munities of his Majesty's natural born subjects. 
Jour. House Rep. 
Mass. Bay 

in New England. 

French Settlement of Oxfokd, 1687. 

There are no records of the Oxford French settlement until 
November, 1687. 

A letter of a French Protestant refugee in Boston, dated 
November, 1687, published by the French Protestant His- 
torical Society : 

[ TRANSLATION.] 

"The Nicmok country belongs to the President, himself 
(Gabriel Bernon), and the land costs nothing, I do not know 
as yet the precise quantity that is given to each family ; some 
have told me it is from fifty to a hundred acres, according to 
the size of a family. ... It lies with those who wish to 
take up lands whether to take them in the one or the other 
plantations (Boston or New Oxford) — on the sea board or in 
the interior. The Nicmok plantation is inland, at a distance 
of twenty leagues from Boston, and equally distant from the 
sea ; so that when the settlers wisli to send any thing to Boston, 
or to obtain any thing from thence, they are obliged to trans- 
port it in wagons. In the neighborhood of this settlement 

Note. — Bulletin, xvi, 73. 



t42 The Records of Oxford. 

there are small rivers and ponds abounding in fish, and woods 
full of game. M. Boudet is their minister. The inhabitants 
as yet number only fiftj-two persons." — Bulletin, xvi, 73. 

At this time the number of French in Boston was very 
small. 

" Here in Boston," says the French refugee, writing in 
November, 16S7, "there are not more than twenty French 
families, and they are every day diminishing on account of 
departing for the country to hire or buy land,* and to strive to 
make some settlement. They are expected this spring from 
all quarters. Two young men have lately arrived from Caro- 
lina, who give some news from that colony." — Report of a 
French Protestant refugee in Boston, 1687. Translated from 
the French by E. T. Fisher, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

May 24, 16SS, is the date of the deed of Dudley and other 
proprietors, to Gabriel Bernon. The deed of division was 
executed July 3, 1688. 

These documents would prove that the thirty families were 
occupying their French plantations in the spring of 1688, the 
stipulated time having expired in the January previous. 

In the deed of division dated July 3, 1688, there is a de- 
scription of Mr, Dudley's portion of land, where it names his 
northeastern bound as " a white oak, square driven in the 
meadow, by the river which runs bj'^ and from the French 
houses. This bound was about one-third of a mile down the 
river from where the road to Webster now crosses it, and of 
course due south from the north-east corner of the Augutteback 
pond."t 

This is the only record we have relating to the existence of 
the hoiises of the French habitans at that time, and is a con- 
firmation of their location from tradition. 



*The French plantation of New Oxford. 

t The Augutteback pond is the original lake in Howarth's, not the pres- 
ent reservoir. 



The Old French Mill. 143 

The deed to Bernon required that he should build a corn or 
grist mill within twelve months from the date of his deed ; 
1689 is tlie next record of the French settlement. 

In March, 1689, is the contract of Mr. Cliurch for the mill 
for New Oxford. 

Mr. Bernon states that he had built in New Oxford "a corn 
mill! [mill], a wash leathern miln, and a saw miln." The 
corn mill was the upper site near what is known as Rich's 
mill. The saw mill near the south village street on the high- 
way leading to the French fort. The wash leather mill on 
the same river, situated between the corn and saw mills. 

These mills were located upon the river east of the village 
street. In the village records in 1714, the one near the south 
end is called the "Old Mill Place," and was the sawmill. 
At a later date the corn mill was built, at the upper site. 

The Old French Mill of New Oxford. 
[ " contract De Mr Cherch pour Le Moulin de New-oxford:'^ 

"Articles of Agreement had made concluded and agreed 
upon by and Between Caleb Church of \Vatertown Millright 
and Gabriel Bernon of Boston Merc' this Day of March 

Anno Domini One Thousand six hundred Eight Eight Nine. 

"Imp« The said Caleb Church doth Covenant^'and Agree 
with the 8'^ Gabriel Bernon that he shall and vill att his own 
Proper Costs and Charges Erect Build and ffinish a Corn or 
Grist mill in all poynts workmanlike in Such Place in the 
Village of Oxford as shall by the s'' Bernon be Directed the 
s" Mill House to be Twenty two foot Long and Eighteen foot 
Broad and Eleven foot stud Substantially and Sufficiently 
covered with a jett to Cover the W heele and a Chamber fitt for 
the Laying and Disposing Corn Bags or other Utensills Neces- 
sary for the s" Mill and the s'' Church doth Covenant to find 
att his Own Proper Costs all the Iron Worke Necessary for 



144 The Records of Oxford. 

the 8*^ Mill and all other Things Except what is hereafter 
Expressed 

" Item, the said Gabriel Bernon doth Covenant and Agree 
with the said Caleb Church that hee will bee att the Charge of 
searhing Preparing and Bringing to Place the Mill Stones for 
the s^ mill and that he will by the Oversight and Direction of 
the s"* Church Make Erect and finish the Earth of the Dame 
that shall bee by the s** Church adjudged necessary for the 
s^ Mill and also will dig and Prepare the Place where the Mill 
shall be Erected and also will allow to the s*^ Church five hun- 
dred foot of Boards and Persons to help for the Cutting 
Down of the Timber and will bee att the Charge of Bringing 
the Timber to Place and further doth Covenant to pay to the 
s** Church for his Labor and Pains herein the Sume of forty 
Pounds two thirds thereof in money the Other Tiiird in goods 
att money price in Three Equall Payments One Third att the 
Ifalling the Timber One Third att the Raising and the Last att 
the finishing the s'* mill 

" Lastly the s"* Church doth Covenant and Promies to finish 
the s* Mill all sufficient and workemanlike and Sett her to 
"Worke by the Last day of Aug* next after the Day of the Date 
hereof In Wittness whereof they have hereunto sett their 
hands and seals the day and Year first above written 

" Caleb Church. [ Seal.A^ 
" Sealed and Delivered 
" in Presence of 

" I. Bertrand Dutuffeau 
" Tho Dudley." 

On the back of the original paper is the following : 

" Within named Caleb Church do ingage and promis to find 
the stones and laye them on to make mele at my one costs and 
charge for the which m"^ Bernon doth ingage and promis to 



The Old French Mill, 145 

paye for the same one and twenty pounds in corent mony for 
the same to be concluded when the mill grinds 

" Boston May : y« 20 : 1689 

" KiCHAED W1LKIN8 Caleb Church 

"Edmond Browne Gabriel Bernon." 

[Seal.'] 

L s: d 

" ffor the mill in first the sura of forty pounds 40 : 00 : 

secondly for the stones of the said one and twenty 

pounds 21 : 00 : 

forthely for an addition to the house six pounds 6 : 00 : 

(sic) 

67: 00: 

Two receipts from Mr. Church : 

" Eeceived one third Part of the within mentioned sume of 
forty well is Thirteen Pounds six shillings and Eight Pence 
two thirds in money and one third in Goods by me 

" Caleb Church." 

"More I have received fifty three pounds tirteen shillings 
wich the above said sum are in all the sum of sixty and seven 
pounds in full following our s"^ bargain Boston : 4 february 
1689-90 received by my 

" Caleb Church." 

" Peter Basset in witness 

" Gabriel Depont present." 

— Bernon Papers. — Dr. Baird. 
19 



H^ The Records of Oxford. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Intercolonial Wars. 
1. King William's War, 1689. 

The French settlement is estabh'shed at Oxford. 

The inhabitants are located on their plantations. Rev, Daniel 
Bondet is their minister; he so states in a letter to Lord Corn- 
bury, and accompanied these French Protestants to New Oxford. 

The mills are being erected for the convenience of tbe in- 
habitants. 

When in 1689 King William's war was declared in the 
Colonies it continued nearly eight years, and was the cause of 
the French inhabitants abandoning the settlement of New Ox- 
ford, it being unsafe to remain frcm the hosiility of the Indians. 

M^ Dan', Bondet's Repre.-en rations referring to N. Oxford, 
July 6•^ 1691. 

He mentions it as upon " an occasion which fills my heart 
with sorrow and my life of trouble, but my humble request 
will be at least before God, and before you a solemn protesta- 
tion against the guilt of those incorrigible persons who dwell 
in our place. 

" The rome [rum] is always sold to the Indians without 
order and measure,. . . .insomuch that according the complaint 
sent to me by Master Dickestean with advice to present it to 
your honor. 

" The 26 of the last month there was about twenti indians 
so furious by drunkness that they fought like bears and fell 
upon one called remes. , . . , who is appointed for preaching the 
gospel amongst them he had been so much disfigured by his 
wonds that there is no hope of his recovery. If it was your 
pleasure to signilie to the instrumens of that evil the jalosie 
of your athoreti and of the publique tranquility, you would do 
great good maintaining the honor of God, in a Christian habita- 



Daniel Allen, Representative. i/^y 

tion, comforting some honest souls which being incompatible 
witii such abominations feel every day the burden of afflixion 
of their honorable perigrination aggravated. Hear us pray and 
so God be with you and prosper all your just undertakins and 
applications tis the sincere wish of your most respectuous 
servant. 

" D. BoNDET, 

" minister of the gospell in a 
" French Congregation at New Oxford." 

1693 is the date of the followin": record : 

" Andre Sigourney aged of about fifty years doe affirme that 
the 28 day of nouemb' last past he was with all of the village 
in the mill for to take the rum in the hands of Peter Canton 
and when they asked him way (why) hee doe abuse so the In- 
dieus in seleing them liquor to the great sliame and dangers of 
all the company, hee s** Canton answered that itt was his will 
and that he hath right sue to doe and asking him further if itt 
was noe him how (who) make soe manylndieans drunk he did 
answer that hee had sell to one Indian and one squa the valew 
of four gills and that itt is all upon w'^*' (which) one of the 
company named Ellias Dupenx told him that hee have meet an 
Indian drunk w'^'* (which) have get a bott (le) fooll (full) and 
said that itt was to the mill how sell itt he answered that itt 
may bee truth. 

" Andke Sigoubmay." 

" Boston, Dec. 5, 1693." 

The original document is in the possession of the Hon. 
Peter Butler. Quiney, Mass. — Huguenot Emigration to 
America, vol. 2, p. 273. 

In 1693 Daniel Allen was chosen representative from New 
Oxford to the General Court at Boston. Mr. Allen's name is 
found in the list for iiV.rS, as from this place. ' 

In this county Lancaster, Mendon and Oxford were repre- 
sented. 



148 The Records of Oxford. 

Oxford having been granted by the Provincial government 
the privilege of representation was made liable to taxation. 

\\\ 1694 a moderate assessment was made and sent with an 
order for its collection, to the "Constable of the French 
Plantations." 

The following was sent in reply to this order: 

[ Andrew Sigourney to Sir William Phijpps^ etcl 

"To His Excellency Sir William Phipps, Kn't Capt. 
General and Governor in Chief of their Majesties' 
Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 
AND TO the Honorable Council " : 

" The humhle petition of Andreio Sigourney., Constable of the 
French Plantation., 
"Humbly Sheweth unto Your Excellency and to Your 
Honors, that your petitioner received an order from Mr. James 
Taylor Treasurer for collecting eight pounds six shillings in 
our plantation for Poll money, now whereas the Indians have 
appeared several times this Summer, we were forced to garri- 
son ourselves for three months together and several families 
fled, so that all our Summer harvest of hay and corn hath gone 
to ruin by the beasts and cattle which hath brought us so low 
that we have not enough to supply our own necessities many 
other families abandoning likewise, so that we have none left 
but Mr. Bondet our minister and the poorest of our plantation 
so that we are incapable of paying said Poll unless we dispose 
of what little we have and quit our plantations. Wherefore 
humbly entreat this Honorable Council to consider our miseries 
and incapacity of paying this poll, and as in duty bound we 
shall ever pray."* 

*Ma83. Archives, C, 502. — Payment was not enforced. We find an 
act later, " abating, remitting and forgiving " taxes from this place to 
tlie amount of thirty-three pounds and six shillings. — Province Laws 
698, p. 341. 



Rev. Daniel Bondet in Boston. 149 

This paper without date is endorsed, Read Oct. 10, 1694. 
— Mass. Archives, C, 502. 

Mr. Sigourney's declaration " The Indians have appeared 
several times this summer, we were forced to garrison our- 
selves for three months together, and several families fled." 
This statement reveals the cause of the decline and final ex- 
tinction of the settlement. 

Not long after the date of this petition, Rev. Mr. Bondet 
retired from the New Oxford settlement, and became a resi- 
dent of Boston. He left his plantation of two hundred acres 
of land, which he and his heirs never claimed. 

The Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the In- 
dians of New England was incorporated by Parliament in 
1649. It was this society tliat appointed the Rev. Daniel 
Bondet to preach to the remaining Nipmuck Indians in the 
Indian town of Manchang (Oxford village), where he com- 
menced his labors with both the French and these natives in 
1687. 

At this time Major Robert Thompson, the first named in 
the grant for Oxford, was President of the Society. 

" During this summer of 1694, a daughter of Mr. Alard, one 
of the refugees in the settlement of Oxford, on leaviiig her 
home, near the lower mills, accompanied by two younger chil- 
dren of the family, was murdered by some roving Indians, and 
the younger children were made prisoners, and taken to Que- 
bec. Several months must have elapsed before the parents 
knew the fate of their children who were captured." — Note, 
Bernon Papers. 

The following sketch is a transcript from an interesting and 
valuable paper, entitled : 

Note. — Andrew Sigourney, Constable (Connetable), an ancient offi- 
cer only second to the crown of France, formerly the first military officer 
of the crown. — See Constable Montmorency. 



1 50 The Records of Oxford. 

"A Memoir of the French Protestants who Settled at 
Oxford, Massachusetts, 1687, by Rev. Abiel Holmes, 
D. D,, OF Cambridge, Mass., Cor. Sec't Mass. Hist. 
Socip:ty." 

" Every thing concerning this interesting colony of exiles has 
hitherto been learnt from tradition, with the illustrations de- 
rived from scanty records, and original manuscripts. Many of 
these manuscripts, which are generally written in the French 
language, are in the possession of Mr. Andrew Sigourney,"* of 
Oxford, and the rest were principally procured by Mr. Sig- 
ourney for the compilation of this memoir." 

" Mr. Andrew Sigonrney is a descendant from the first of 
that name who was among the original French settlers of Ox- 
ford. To his kindness I am entitled for nearly all my materials 
for this part of the memoir. After giving me every facility at 
Oxford, in aid of my inquiries and researches, he made a jour- 
ney to Providence for the sole purpose of procuring for me the 
Bernon papers, which he brought to me at Cambridge. These 
papers were in the possession of Philip Allen, Esq. (Governor 
Allen, of Providence, a descendant of the Pernon family), and 
who has indulged nie with the MSS. to the extent of my 
wishes." 

Rev. Abiel Holmes, D. D., visited Oxford, Mass., in April, 
1817. He writes : 

" I waited upon Mrs. Butlerf , who obligingly told me all she 
could recollect concerning the French emigrants." 

" Mrs. Butler was the wife of Mr. James Butler, who lives 

*Andrew Sigourney (Captain), sod of Anthony Sigourney, of Boston, 
was born in Boston, Nov. 30, 1752. 

Note. — Capt. Sigourney made his journey to Providence in a one- 
horse chaise, and subsequently to Cambridge, in the same manner of 
traveling, 

tMrs, Butler was the daughter of Anthony Sigourney of Boston, and 
was b, in Boston, March 23, 1741-2, 



Mrs. Butler s Reminiscences. 151 

near the First Church in Oxford;* and when I saw her, was in 
the seventj-fiftli year of her age. Her original name was Mary 
Sigoiirney. Slie was a granddaughter of Mr. Andrew Sigour- 
ney, who came over when young with his father (Andrew 
Sigourney, 1st, from France). 

Mrs. Butler's "Reminiscences. 

Her grandmother's mother (the wife of Captain Germaine), 
died on the voyage, leaving an infant of only six montlis (who 
was the grandmother of Mrs. Butler) and another daughter, 
Marguerite, who was then six years of age.f 

"The information which Mrs. Butler gave me, she received 
from her grandmother, Mrs. Mary (Germaine) Sigourney, who 
lived to the age of eighty-three years, and from her grand- 
mother's sister. Marguerite (Germaine), married to Captain de 
paix Cazeneau, who lived to the age of ninety-live or ninety- 
six years, both of whom resided and died in Boston. 

Eeminiscences of Mrs. Mart (Germaine) Sigourney of 

Boston, as Given to Mrs. Bdtleb. 

" The refugees left France in 1684, or in 1685, with the 

utmost trepidation and precipitancy. The great grandfather of 

Mrs. Butler (Captain Germaine), gave the family notice that 

*The church on the north common. 

Note. — Mrs. Butler in her interview with Rev. Abiel Holmes D. D. 
narrates facts relative to the Germaine ancestry in leaving France, and 
not of the Sigourney family. 

tin an ancient French prayer-book of tlie Sigourney family, published 
1641, there is the record of Marguerite (Germaine) Cazeneau's birth, viz. : 
Aunt Casno, born ye 12 Decemb. 1671. Mother Sigourney (Mary Ger- 
maine), ye 2 March, 1680, 

In 1686, at the time of Mrs. Germaine's death, leaving an infant, Mary 
Germaine, the grandmother of Mrs. Butler, was six years of age, and her 
sister, Mrs. de Paix Cazeneau, was fifteen years of age. 



152 The Records of Oxford. 

they must go. They carae ojff with secrecy, with wliatever 
clothes they conld put upon tlie children," and left without 
waiting to partake of the dinner which was being prepared for 
them. When they arrived at Boston they went directly to 
Fort Hill, where they were provided for, and there continued 
until they went to Oxford. 

Mrs. Butler's account was entirely verbal, according to her 
recollection. 

Mrs. Butler stated the " French built a fort on a hill at Ox- 
ford, on the east side of French river." She also stated another 
fort and a church were built by the French in Oxford. 

Dr. Holmes writes : 

" Mrs. Butler lived in Boston until the American Revolu- 
tion, and soon afterward removed to Oxford. Her residence in 
both places rendered her more familiar with the history of the 
emigrants than she would have been, had she resided exclu- 
sively in either. She says they prospered in Boston after they 
were broken up at Oxford. Of the memorials of the primitive 
plantation of her ancestors she had been very observant, and 
still cherished a reverence for them." 

In 1817, very soon after my visit to Mrs, Butler, I received a 
letter from her husband, expressing his regret that she had not 
mentioned to me Mrs. Wheeler, a widow lady, the mother of 
Mr. Joseph Cooledge, an eminent merchant in Boston. Her 
maiden name was Oliver (Olivier). She was a branch of the 
Germaine familv, and related to " Old Mr. Andrew Sigournev " 

Note. — French Families. — Mrs. Butler named as of the first emigrants 
from France, the following families: Bowdoin and Boudinot came to 
Boston ; could not say whether or not they came to Oxford. Bouyer, 
who married a Sigourney. Charles Germaine, removed to New York. 
Olivier did not know whether tliis family came to Oxford, or not; but 
the ancestor, by the mother's side, was a Sigourney. 

Note. — Bouyer married Marie Anne, daughter of Daniel Johonnot, 
and Susanne Sigourney Jansen, who was daughter of Andrew Sigour- 
ney, Sr. 



Mrs. Butler s Reminiscences. 153 

in whose family she was brought up, and at whose house she 
was married.* Mrs. Butler supj^osed slie must be between 
eighty and ninety years of age, and that being so much older 
than herself, she had heard more particulars from their ances- 
tors. But on inquiry for Mrs. Wheeler, in Boston, I found 
that she died a short time before the reception of the letters. 

How much do we lose by neglecting the advice of the son 
of Sirach? "Miss not the discourse of the elders; for they 
also learned of their fatliers, and of them thou shalt learn un- 
derstanding, and to give answer as need requireth." 

Db. Holmes Continues Mrs. Botlek's Keminiscences. 

" Mrs. Johnson (Jausen) the wife of Mr. Johnson (Jansen), 
who was killed by the Indians in 1696, was a sister of the first 
Andrew Sigournev.f 

" The husband, returning home from Woodstock while the In- 
dians were massacreing his family, was shot down at his own door. 

*Mrs. Marguerite Wheeler was the daughter of Antoine and 
Mary Sigourney Olivier (French refugees). She was born at Annapolis, 
Nova Scotia. November 6, 1726. She was married three times; in her first 
marriage to Joseph Cooledge of Boston; in her second marriage 
to Capt. Israel Jennison of Worcester, a son of Peter Jennison and a 
nephew of Hon. William Jennison; after Mr. Jennison's death she was 
married to the Rev. Joseph Wheeler, who was a member of the Provincial 
Congress in 1774; removed to Worcester in 1781, where he was register 
of the Probate Court till his death in 1793. Mrs. Wheeler died in Bos- 
ton, at her son's house, Mr. Joseph Cooledge, 1816, aged 90 years. 

Note.— Captain Israel Jennison died in Worcester, September 19, 
1782. Mr. Joseph Wheeler died in Worcester, 1793. 

tMrs. Susanne Johnson (Jansen) was the daughter of the first Andrew 
Sigourney and sister to Andrew Sigourney, Jr., who rescued her from the 
Indians. It was early evening when the massacre of the Jansen family 
occuiTed; Mrs. Jansen was anxiously awaiting the return of Mr. Jansen 
from Woodstock. 

The names of the tliree unfortunate children of Jean Jansen who were 
massacred by the Indians were : Andre (Andrew), Pierre (Peter), Marie 
(Mary). Jean Jansen was a native of Holland, but of French extraction. 
20 



154 The Records of Oxford. 

" Mr. Sigournev, hearing the report of the guns, ran to the 
house and seizing his sister carried her out of a hack door and 
took her over French river, which they waded through, and 
fled towards Woodstock, where there was a garrison. The 
Indians killed the children, dashing them against the jambs of 
the fire-place." 

From Woodstock Records. 
" The inhabitants were aroused at the break of day by the 
arrival of the fugitives with their heavy tidings. The news of 
the massacre spread through the different settlements, filling 
them with alarm and terror. The savages might at any 
moment burst upon them. Their defenses were slight, ammu- 
nition scanty, their own Indians doubtful ; the whole popula- 
tion, men, women and children, hastened within their fortifica- 
tions. Posts were at once dispatched to Lieutenant-General 
Stoughton, commander of the Massachusetts forces, and to 
Major James Fitch at Norwich. The day and night were 
spent in watching and terror, but before morning the arrival 

Note. — The chimney base of the Jansen house is still preserved in 
Oxford at the Memorial Hall, as a relic of the massacre of the Jansen 
family. The name of Jansen is, in the Boston Records, Jeanson. 

A memorial stone has been erected on or near the site of the dwelling 
on the old Dudley road, on land belonging to the late Charles A. Sig- 
ourny, Esq., of Oxford. Tradition states Captain Andrew Sigourney 
visited yearly the site of the Jansen house to mark the ruins. 

Note. — ''Mrs. Shuraway, living near the Jansen house, showed Mrs. 
Butler the spot where the house stood, and some of its remains. 

" Col. Jeremiah Kingsbury, fifty-five years of age (1817), had seen 
the chimney and other remains of that house. 

" His mother, aged eighty-four years, told Mrs. Butler that there 

was a burying place called ' the French Burying Ground,' not far from 

the fort at Mayo's Hill. She herself remembered to have seen many 

graves there." 

\i yJiMrs. Shumway was the wife of Peter Shumway whose ancestor was a 

\\ Huguenot from France. 



Woodstock Records. 155 

of Major Fitch, with his brother Daniel, a few EngHsh sol- 
diers, and a band of Pequots and Mohegans, somewhat allayed 
apprehensions. N^o enemy had been seen, but it was rumored 
they had divided into small companies, and were lurking about 
the woods. 

"It was proposed to leave a sufficient number of men for 
the defense of Woodstock, and send others to range for the 
marauders. The Wabquassets eagerly welcomed Major Fitch 
as their friend and master, and offered to join the Mohe- 
gans in their congenial service. The Woodstock authorities 
would gladly have employed them, but could not supply them 
with ammunition according to the laws of Massachusetts. To 
refuse their offer at this critical juncture, or to send them forth 
without ammunition, might enrage and forever alienate them, 
while conciliation and indulgence might make them the firm 
friends and allies of Woodstock, Under these circumstances. 
Major Fitch took the responsibility of employing and equip- 
ping these Indians; calling them all together he took their 
names, and found twenty -nine fighting men, twenty-five native 
Wabquassets, and four Shetuckets, married to Wabquassets. 

"Eighteen Wabquassets and twenty-three Mohegans then 
sallied out together, under Captain Daniel Fitch, to range 
through Massachusetts, with a commission from Major Fitch, 
as magistrate and military officer, asking all plantations to 
which they might come for supplies and accommodations. 
Scarcely had they gone forth when four strange Indians were 
discovered at the west end of the town, but whether enemies 
or not they could not tell. At evening a scout from Provi- 
dence arrived, being the captain with fourteen men, who had 
been out two days northward of Mendon and Oxford, but 
made no discovery. Captain Fitch and his men were 
equally unsuccessful, and the invading Mohawks effected their 
escape uninjured." 

Note. — Miss Larned's History of Windham County. 



156 The Records of Oxford. 

'* It is stated on the intelligence of those outrages, and the 
appearance of hostile parties near Woodstock, Major James 
Fitcli marched to that town. On the 27th a party was sent 
out of thirty-eight Norwich, Mohegan and Nipmiick Indians, 
and twelve soldiers, to range the woods toward Lancaster, un- 
der Captain Daniel Fitch ; on their march they passed through 
Worcester, and discovered traces of tlie enemy in its vicinity." 

A Letter from Captain Daniel Fitoh to the Rt. Hon. 
William Stoughton, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor and 
Commander-in-Chief, etc. 

" Wliereas we are informed of several persons killed at Ox- 
ford on Tuesday night last past, and not knowing what 
danger might be near to Woodstock and several other fron- 
tiers toward the western parts of the Massachusetts province, 
several persons offering volunteers, both English and Indians, 
to the number of about fifty (concerning which the bearer, 
Mr. James Corbin, may more fully inform your honor), all of 
which were willing to follow the Indian enemy, hoping to find 
those that had done the late mischief : In prosecution whereof, 
we have ranged the woods to the westward of Oxford, and so 
to Worcester, and then to Lancaster, and were freely willing to 
spend some considerable time in endeavoring to find any of the 
enemy that may be upon Merrimac or Penicook rivers, or any 
where in the western woods; to which and we humbly request 
your Honor would be pleased to encourage said design, by 
granting us some supply of provisions and ammunition ; and, 
also, by strengthening us to any tiling wherein we may be 
short in any respect, that so we may be under no disadvantage 
or discouragement." They may further inform your Honor 
that on the Sabbath day coming at a place called Half 
Way River, betwixt Oxford and Worcester, we came upon the 
fresh tracks of several Indians, which were gone towards Wor- 
cester, which we apprehend were the Indians that did the late 



Jansen Massacre. i^y 

damage at Oxford, and being very desirous to do some ser- 
vice that may be to the benefit of his Majesty's subjects, we 
humbly crave your Honor's favorable assistance. 

"Herein I remain your Honor's most humble servant, accord- 
ing to my ability. Daniel Fitch." 

" Lancastek, 31^^^ August, 1696. 

" Not far from Oxford, in the village of the Wabquassets, a 
clan of the Nipmuck tribe, near New Roxbury, or Woodstock, 
lived an Indian known to the English as ' Toby,' who was 
distinguished among his more sluggish and pacific people for a 
restless, schemhig disposition. Toby is now the 'great man 
or captain ' among these JSFipmuck Indians." 

" On Tuesday, the twenty-hfth of August, 1696, Toby, with a 
party of Indians, toward evening approached the ' French 
houses ' at 'New Oxford. The habitation of Jean Jansen was 
situated on what has ever since been known to the English as 
Johnson's plain." 

" Toby leaving his residence, is sometimes pi-ivately among his 
relatives at Woodstock, and at hunting houses in the wilderness." 

" But liis activity in the service of the Canadian enemy is 
greater than ever. At one time, he appears at a meeting of 
the Canada Mohawks with their brethren among the Five Na- 
tions, and tells them if they will 'but draw off the friend In- 
dians from the English,' they can ' easily destroy ' the New 
England settlements." 

Note 1. — Huguenot Emigration to American. Dr. C. W. Baird, vol, II. 

Note. — "January 29, 1700, Governor Wiuthrop, of Connecticut, in 
correspondence with Governor Bellemont of New York, referred to it as 
an occurrence to be remembered, and tlie friendly Mohegans wlio met in 
council at New London, spoke of Toby as the Indian 'that had a hand 

in killing one Jansen. One Toby the principal instigator who 

had a particular hand in killing one Jansen.' " 

Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. 
Vol. IV., pp. 612-630. 



158 The Records of Oxford. 

"At another time he is in Norwich, Connecticut, bearing a 
belt of wampum to the loyal tribes, inviting them to join in a 
general uprising."* 

Reminiscences of Mrs. Mary Germaine Sigourney, as given 
TO Mrs. Mary Sigodrney Bdtler. 
Immediately following the massacre, the Huguenots decided 
to abandon the settlement in New Oxford. Early on the 
morning of their departure, the different famihes bade adieu 
to their homes and plantations ; the doors of their dwellings 
were closed, and the narrow diamond casements were darkened 
by the heavy inside shutters, and their homes with their gar- 
dens, orchards and vineyards were again to be deserted for new 
homes, leaving their harvests and vintage unharvested. 

*'* The Information of Black James, taken from liis own mouth on 
Feb. the 1st, 1699-1700: 

" That he being in the woods a hunting, came to a place near Masso- 
muck to a great Wigwam of five fire places and eleven hunting Indians ; 
he went into the Wigwam towards one end of it, and saw an Indian w'''' 
seemed to hide himself, he turned himself towards the other end of the 
Wigwam, and met there a man called Cawgatwo, a Wabquasset Indian, 
and he asked if he saw any strange Indians there; he said I saw one I 
did not know ; then Toby came to him, and another stranger and Caw- 
gatwo told him that was Toby ; he said he would go away to-morrow, 
they bid him not go away, for to-morrow they should discourse ; the 
next morning they went out and called this James and bid him come 
and see the Wampom they had gathered ; he asked what that Wampom 
was for, they said it was Mohawk's Wampom ; the Dutchman had told 
them that the English had ordered to cut off all Indians, and they had 
the same news from the French, and therefore we are gathering and send- 
ing Wampom to all Indians, that we may agree to cut off the English ; 
and Cawgatwo told this James that Toby brought that Wampom and 
that news from the Mohawks; then he went home and told his own 
company, and desired them to send Word to the Mohawks and Nihan- 
ticks of this news." 

(Information respecting a rumored rising of the Indians. Docu- 
ments, etc., Vol. IV, pp. 613-616.) 



The Departure of the Huguenots, 159 

The refugees repaired to their chapel for a 'matin service ; 
they then retired to the little churchyard in front of the chapel 
to take leave of the graves of their friends. In imagination one 
can picture the little groups as they departed in a silent pro- 
cession and moved onward over the forest paths toward Boston. 

Nothing can be added to this simple narrative of Mrs. Mary 
Germaine Sigourney who was herself one of the refugees and 
whose reminiscences have been treasured so sacredly by her 
descendants. 

Mary Germaine, born in France in 1680, must have been at 
this time sixteen years of age, and her sister, Mrs. Marguerite 
(Sigourney) Cazeneau, twenty-five years of age. 

The Deskrted House. 

Life and thought have gone away 
;^:!"V; Side by side, 

Leaving door and windows wide:' 
Careless tenants they ! 

All within is dark as night : 
In the windows is no light ; 
And no murmur at the door, 
So frequent on the hinge before. 

Close the door, the shutters close 
Or thro' the windows we shall see 
The nakedness and vacancy 

Of the dark deserted house. 

Come away; no more of mirth 

Is here or merry-making sound. 
The house was builded of the earth, 

And shall fall again to ground. 

Come away; for life and thought 
Here no longer dwell; 

But in a city glorious — " '\ 

A great and distant city have bought 
A mansion incorruptible. 

Would they could have stayed with us ! 

Tennyson. 

A French document signed in Boston, September 4, 1696, 
by the principal French planters of " new oxford," shows that 
Mrs. Jeanson and her brother, Mr. Sigourney, had returned 



i6o The Records of Oxford. 

from Woodstock, to which place they had fled on the night of 
the massacre, Angust 25th, and, also, the abandonment of the 
French plantations in JS^ew Oxford, and the return of the 
French inhabitants to Boston. 

The first record we find of the French refugees after leav- 
ing New Oxford is the following certificate, signed in Boston, 
September 4, 1696, O. S. 

Nous sousignes certifiions et ateston que Monsr. Gabriel 
Bernon non a fait une despence [depeuse] considerable a new 
oxford pour faire valoir la Ville et encourager et ayder les hab- 
itans. et quil [qu'il] a tenu sa maison en etat jusques a ce que 
en fin les Sauvages soient venus masacrer et tuer John John- 
son et ses trois enfens [enfans] Jet que netant [n'etant] pas 
soutenu il a ete oblige et forse d'abandoner son Bien. en foy 
de quoy lui avons signe le present Billet, a Baston le 4® Sep- 
tembre 1696 :* 

Jermon8 Baudouin Benja faneuil 

Jaques Montier Nous attestons ce qui est desus et 

t marque [est] veritable. 

X marque de pais cazaneau 

MoussET Entien [Ancien] 

V marque de Abraham Sauuage 

Jean Rawlings Ancien 

* marque de la vefue de Jean Jeanson 

P. Chardon 
Charle Germon Entien 



*NoTE. — We subscribe, certify and attest that Mr. Gabriel Bernon has 
been at a considerable expense at New Oxford for to make valuable the 
village, and to encourage, aid the inhabitants, and that he held his 
house and estate until the time the Savages came and massacred and 
killed John Johnson and his three children, and not being protected he 
was obliged and forced to abandon his goods. 

In faith of which we have signed the present bond. 

Bastan,* the 4th September, 1696. 

* The French orthography of Boston. 



French Records. i6i 

Nous certiffions que ce sont les marques de personnessusdites. 
Daille Ministre Baudodin 

Jacques Montier Barbut 
Elie Dupeux Andre Sigournat 

Jean Maillet Jean Millet Ant. 

Nous declarons ce que dessus fort veritable ce que John 
Johnson et ces trois en fans ont ete tue le 25® Auost [Aout] 
1696 : en foy de quoj avons signe. 

MoNTEL DuPEDX I. B. Marque de Jean baudoutn 
Jacques Depont Philip [obscure] 
Jermon Rene Grignon 

Je connais et le soy d'experiance que Mr. Gabriel Bernon a 
fait ses efforts pour soutenir notre plantation, et y a depance 
pour cet effet un bien considerable. 

Bureau L'aine [the elder or senior] 
Peter Canton 
We underwritters doe certifie and attest that Mr. Gabriel 
Bernon hath made considerable expences at New oxford for 
to promote the place and incourage the Inhabitants and hath 
kept his house until the s*^ 25*^ August that the Indians came 
upon s'l Plantation & most barbarously murthtred John Evans 
John Johnson and his three childrens. Daeed Bastan 20th 
Septemb. 1696. 

John Usher 

Wm Stoughton 
John Butcher Increase Mather 

Laur Hammond Charles Morton 

Jer. Dummer 
Nehemiah Walter minf 
Wm. Fox. 

Translation. 
"By original manuscripts, dated 1696, and at subsequent 
periods, it appears that Gabriel Bernon, merchant, of an an- 

21 



1 62 The Records of Oxford. 

cient and noble family in La Roclielle, was the president 
of the French plantation in Oxford, and expended large sums 
of money for its improvement. An original paper in French, 
signed at Boston, Sept. 4, l(i96," by the principal French 
planters, certifies this fact in behalf of Mr. Bernon ; and sub- 
joins a declaration that the massacre of Mr. Johnson [Jansen] 
and of his three children by the Indians was the unhappy cause 
of his losses, and of the abandonment of the place. 

From an Ancient Record of 1697. 

All the places are named between ISTew York and Boston 
" where travelers could find entertainment for man and beast." 

And over this forest path all tlie French refugees traveled 
from Oxford via Boston, to New York, and New Rochelle, 
N. Y. 

"From New York to Boston it is accounted 274 miles, thus, 
viz. : From the ]wst-office in New York to Jo. Clapp's in the 
Bowery, is 2 mile [which generally is the baiting place, where 
gentlemen take leave of their friends going so long a journey], 
and where a parting glass or two of generous wine 

" If well applied, make their dull horses feel 
One spurr i' the head is worth two in the heel." 

From said Clapp's (his tavern was near the corner of Bayard 
street), to half-way house, 7 miles; thence to King's bridge, 9; 
to old Shute's at East Chester, 6 ; to New Bochel Meeting- 
House, 4; to Joseph Norton's, 4; to Denliam's, at Rye, 4 ; to 
Knap's, at Horseneck, 7 ; to Belben's, at Norwalk, 10 ; to Burr's, 
at Fairfield, 10 ; to T. Knowles' at Stratford, 9 ; to Andrew San- 
ford's, at Milford, 4 ; to Capt. John Mills', at New Haven, 10 ; 
to the widow Frisbie's at Branford, 10 ; to John Hudson's, at 

Guilford, ; to John Grissil's, at Killinsworth, 10 ; to John 

Clarke's, at Seabrook, 10; to Mr. Plum's, at New London, 18 ; 
to Mr. Sexton's, 15 ; to Mr. Pemberson's, in the Narragansette 
country, 15 ; to the Frenchtown, 24; to Mr. Turnip's, 20 ; to 



Resettlement of O.xford. 163 

Mr. WoodeoL-k's, 1;'; to Mr. Billino-s' farm, 11; to Mr. 
White V, 6 , to Mr. P^'islier's, 6 ; and from tlience to the great 
town of Boston, 10, where many good lodgings and accommo- 
dations mav be had for love and money." 



CHAPTER XIV. 



E.KSETTLEMEMT OF THE FrENCH IN OxFORD INTERCOLONIAL 

Wars. 

II. Queen Ann^s War. 

At the close of King William's War, the peace of Ryswick, 
in 1697, was of short continuation. In 1702, England was 
engaged in war with France and Spain, and the American 
colonies were interested in what was called Queen Anne's 
War. 

In 1699 there was a resettlement of French Protestants at 
New Oxford, with the Rev. James Laborie for their minister. 
Queen Anne's War soon commenced. This war between Eng- 
land and France greatly exposed the New England colonies to 
increased Indian irruptions and barbarities. And this war 
caused the dispersion of the second French settlement in New 
Oxford. An ancient record of this settlement is the petition 
of the " Inhabitants of the town of New Oxford," by James 
Laborie, their minister, dated October 1, 1699." 

[James Laborie " Tou His Excellencie and tou the Honorable 

Council.^^] 
" My Lord and most Honorable Council : 

" Mr. Bondet, formerly minister of this town, not only satis- 
fied to leave us almost two years before the Indians did com- 
mit any act of hostility in this place, but carried away all the 



164 The Records of Oxford. 

hooks wliicli haii been oiven for the use of the phiiitation, with 
the acts and papers of the vilL\o-e, we most humbly supplicate 
your Excellency and the most Honorable Council to oblige Mr. 
Bondet to send back again said books, acts, and papers belong- 
ing to said plantation.* 

" The inhabitants, knowing that all disturbance that hath 
been before in this plantation, have happened only in that some 
people of this plantation did give the Indians drink without 
measure, and that at present there is some continuing to do the 
same, we most humbly supplicate your Excellencj', and the 
Honorable Council to give Mr, James Laborie, our minister, 
full orders to hinder those disturbances which put us in great 
danger of our lives. The said inhabitants complain also against 
John Ingall, that not only he gives to said Indians drink with- 
out measure, but buy all the meat they bring, and goes and sell 
it in other villages, and so hinders the inhabitants of putting 
up any ])rovisions against the Winter. We most humbly suppli- 
cate your Excellency and most Honorable Council to forbid 
said John Ingall to sell any rhoom, and to transport any meat 
out of the plantation that he hath bought of the Indians, be- 
fore the said inhabitants be provided." 

ItOYAL Historical Society, 11 Chandos Stkeet, ) 
Cavendish Squake, W., 28, 6, '84. \ 

Dear Madam — At last I am able to send you all the in- 
formation that is probably now to be had here about M. 
Bondet. 

The " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel," to which 
you refer, is now known as the " New England Company, 

* Note. — Mr. Bondet was the minister of the church and public clerk, 
and the custodian of the records. 

Tlie records of the French settlement in Oxford, are not to be found 
with French records in Boston. They were doubtlessly sent to England 
by Mr. Bondet. 



Records from Royal Historical Society. 165 

London," whose liistory I have the pleasure to send yon l)y 
book post. The secretary of the company (Dr. Venning) has 
been kind enough to make a most careful search through the 
papers of tlie company, but only, 1 regret to say, with small 
result, as all the papers of the company between the years 
1685 and 1696 inclusive, were destroyed by fire many years 
ago. The only notice he has found is in the minutes of a 
meeting held 17th Feb., 1698 : 

"A letter from Richard, Lord Bellemont, to the governor, 
being read, relating to a proposal of providing five itinerant 
ministers to preach the Gospel to the Five Nations of the 

Indians, 

"Ordered, That Monsieur Bondet (recommended by Mr. 
John Ruick) be one of the said five ministers, and that the other 
four be sent from Harvard College in Cambridge, to be chosen 
by the Commissioners there. And that the said five ministers 
dwelling in and preaching to the inhabitants of those Five 
Nations have £60 per annum allowed them out of the stock of 
the Company in New England." 

With many regrets that I am able to add so little to your 
knowledge of M. Bondet, 

I remain, dear madam, 

Very faithfully, yours, 

P. Edward Dove. 
Mrs. Mary de W. Fkeeland. 



Lambeth Palace, S. E., ) 
13 March, 1884. \ 

Madam — I am directed by the Archbishop of Canterbury 
to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 20 Feb. 

His Grace desires me to inform you that he believes the So- 
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel have no records prior 
to the establishment of the Society. 



1 66 The Records of Oxford. 

For information as to records, prior to that date, it might be 

advisable for yon to apply to Professor Baird of New York, 

or to S. W. Kershaw, Esq., M. A., Librarian Lambeth Palace. 

I am, madam, 

Yours faithfnlly, 

Montague Fowlee, 

Chaplain. 
Mrs. Mary de W. Freeland. 

A Letter from the Lord Bishop of London. 

London House, \ 

St. James' Square, S. W., \ 

March 22, 1884. \ 

Madam — I have much pleasnre in forwarding to yon the en- 
closed extract from Bishop Compton's Registry. 

You will observe that Daniel Bondet was ordained Deacon 
tfe Priest on the same day. 

No less than 27 Frenchmen were ordained by the Bishop of 
London between Feb. 28, 1G85, & August 2i;, 1686, and all of 
them were made Deacons and Priests at the same time. 

This is not the case with the English Clergymen ordained at 
the same period. They remained for some time in the Diaconate. 
I infer therefore that the French Clergy were ordained for 
service abroad where they wonld not have an opportunity of 
obtaining Priest's Orders ; and it is probable that they did not 
officiate in England. 



Note: — Lambeth Palace, S. E., \ 

11 June, 1884. ( 

Dear Madam — I am directed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to 
thank you for your letter of the 16th inst., and to send you the enclosed 
autograph. 

I am, dear madam, 

Yours faithfully, 
MANDEVILLE B. PHILLIPS, 

Asso. Secretary. 
Mrs. M. de W. Freeland. 



Letter from the Lord Bishop of London. 167 

You have I understand received from the Secretary of the 

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel all the information 

they have in their office respecting Mr. Bondet and I fear that 

there are no further records of him in England 

I am Madam 

Tr obedient Servant 

J. London. 
Mrs. Mary de W. Fkeeland. 

Documents Received feom the Lord Bishop of London. 

Extract from Bishop Compton's Register of tiie Names of 
Persons ordained by him ; preserved in the registry of the See 
of London. 

A Latin copy of the ordination of Rev. Daniel Boudet was 
enclosed in the Lord Bishop of London's letter and the copy 
certified by the Sub-Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. 

A translation. 

13 day of April 1686 

On this day Daniel Bondet of France was admitted to holy 
orders as Deacon and Priest by the above written Lord Bishop. 

The Lord Bishop above written is the Reverend in Christ, 
Father Flenry, Bishop of London by divine authority. 



FuLHAM Palace, 
June 30, 18^4. 
Mrs. M. de W, Freeland : 

The Bishop of London is very sorry that he cannot give 
Mrs. Freeland any information about records of the "Lords of 
Trade" or as to the office in which they are likely to be found. 
He has no doubt that the Sec. of the Soc. for Propagation of 
the Gospel, will give Mrs. Freeland any information he can if 
he be applied to but he has of course very little spare time. 



1 68 The Records of Oxford. 

" James Laborie in this particular most humbly supplicate 
your Excellency and the most Honorable Council to give him 
a peculiar order for to oblige the Indians to observe the Sab- 
bath Day, many of the said Indians to whom the said Laborie 
hath often exhorted to piety, having declared to submit them- 
selves to said Laborie's exhortations if he should bring an or- 
der with him from your Excellency, or from your honorable 
Lieutenant Governor, Mr. Stanton, or the most Honorable 
Council. 

"Expecting these favors, we shall continue to pray God for 
the preservation of your Excellency, and the most Honorable 
Council, etc. 

James Laborish." 

This petition is indorsed "L re, written 1st Xbr 99 with a 
proclamacon for the observance of the Lord's Day inclosed." 

Monsieur Laborie to the Earl of Bellemont. 

" At New Oxford, this Ylth June, 1700. 
" My Lord : 

"When I had the honor to write to your Excellency, I did 
not send you the certificate of our inhabitants with reference 
to Monsieur Bondet, for the reason that they were not all here. 
I have at length procured it, and send it to your Excellency. 
As to our Indians, I feel myself constrained to inform your 
Excellencv tliat the four who came back, notwithstanding all 
the protestations which they made to me upon arriving, had 

Note. — Same year " His Excellency also acquainted the board that 
by express from New Oxford that he had received a letter from Lieu- 
tenant Sabin of Woodstock," "concerning the Indians who had gone 
eastward." — Council Rec, 94. 

Advised and consented that his Excellency issue forth his warrant to 
Mr. Treasurer, to pay forty shillings unto John Ingall, sent with an ex- 
press from Oxford bringing the news." 

February 7th, 1699.— Council Rec, 95. 



Commerce of Oxford in IJOO. 169 

no other object in returning than to induce those who had been 
faitliful to depart with them. They have gained over the 
greater number, and to-day they leave for Penikook — twenty- 
tive in all — men, women and children. I preached to them 
yesterday in their own tongue. From all they say, I infer 
that the priests are vigorously at work, and that they are 
hatching some echeme which they will bring to light so soon 
as they shall lind a favorable occasion." 

Earl of Bellemont to the Lords of Trade, London (July 

9, 1700). 

"Mons. Labourie is aFrench minister placed at New Ox- 
ford by Mr. Stoughton, the Lieutenant-Governor, and myself, 
at a yearly stipend of £30, out of the corporation money ; 
there are eight or ten French families there that have farms, 
and he preaches to them. * * * 

" The Indians about the town of Woodstock and New Oxford, 
consisting of about forty families, have lately deserted their 
houses, and corn, and are gone to live with the Penicook In- 
dians, which has much alarmed the English thereabouts, and 
some of the English have forsaken their houses and farms and 
removed to towns for better security. That the Jesuits have 
seduced these forty families is plain. * * * Mr. Sa bin is so 
terrified at the Indians of Woodstock and New Oxford quit- 
ting their houses and corn, that he has thought fit to forsake 
his dwelling and is gone to live in a town. All the thinking 
people here believe the Eastern Indians will break out against 
the English in a little time." 

The Commerce of Oxford Nearly Two Hundred Years Ago. 
In 1700, during the time of the return of the French refu- 
gees to the settlement of Oxford, " from time to time wagon 

Note.— Peanacook was the name of an Indian settlement at the 
present site of Concord, N. H. 
22 



I/O The Records of Oxford. 

loads of dressed skins were sent down to Providence, to be 
shipped to Bernou (who was residing in Newport) for the sup- 
ply of the French hatters and glovers in Boston and New. 
port," quite a contrast to transportation by railroad of the pres- 
ent time. " Several of the French Protestants in Boston were 
engaged in the manufacturing of hats. They were sup})lied 
with peltries for this purpose by Bernon, who received the 
dressed skins from his ' Chamoiserie ' at Oxford, and forwarded 
them to Peter Signac, John Baudouin and others in Boston, 
as well as to John Julien, who pursued the same business in 
Newport. 

" A cargo shipped in August, 1T03, to his agent Samuel 
Baker, comprised otter, beaver, raccoon, deer and other skins, 
valued at forty -four pounds." 

The dressing of chamois skins, and the making of gloves, 
were among the arts in which the Huguenots excelled. 

" Hat making was among the most important manufactories 
taken into England by the refugees. In France, it had been al- 
most entirely in the hands of the Protestants. Tliey alone 
possessed the secret of the liquid composition which served to 
prepare rabbit, hare and beaver-skins ; and they alone supplied 
the trade with fine Caiidebec hats, in sucli demand in Eng- 
land and Holland. After the Revocation, most of them went 
to London, taking with them the secret of their art, which was 
lost to France for more than forty years. 

" It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century, that 
a French hatter, after having long worked in London, stole 
the secret the refugees had carried away, took it back to his 
country, comnmnicated to the Paris hatters and founded a large 
manufactory." * 

A record from the French church in Boston, dated June 29, 



* History of the French Protestant Refugees, from the Revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes to Our Own Days. Charles Weiss. Vol. I, book 
III, Chapter III. 



A Petition to Gov. BelUmont. 171 

1702, signed by Peter Chardon and Eene Grignon. The 
French Protestants of Boston, in a petition to Governor Belle- 
mout, to the Council and Aesembly of Representatives, then in 
session in Boston, for aid in support of the Gospel ministry 
among them. 

(We) "have borne great charges in paying taxes for the poor- 
of the country, and in maintaining their own poor of this town 
and those of New Oxford, who by occasion of the war witli- 
drew themselves, and since that they have assisted many who 
returned to Oxford in order for their re-settlement." (They) 
" have recourse to this honoral)le Assembly, which God has 
established for the succour of the afflicted, especially the faith 
ful that are strangers." 

Gov. Dudley to (Boston, July 7th, 1702) Mr. Gabriel Ber- 
non, in reply to his petition for aid in the protection of his 
property against the Indians. " Herewith you have a commis- 
sion for captain of New Oxford. I desire you forthwith to re- 
pair thither and show your said commission, and take care that 
the people be armed, and take them in your own house, with a 
palisade, for the security of the inhabitants ; and if they are at 
such a distance in your village that there should be need of an. 
other place to draw them together in case of danger, consider of 
another proper house, and write me, and you shall have orders 
therein. " I am, your humble servant, 

"J. Dudley." 

The resettlement of French Protestants in Oxford, is named 
in the Council records. In the summer of 1703, soldiers were sta- 
tioned here for the protection of the inhabitants from the Indians. 

"An accompt of wages and subsistence of thirteen soldiers, 
whereof one a sergeant, posted at Oxford and Hassanamisco in 

Note. In 1703, the Indians were conspiring to attack the settle- 
ment. Lieut. Tobin of Woodstock reported to the Massachusetts Coun- 
cil, April 9, 1702: " That the Indians were plotting mischief, and that 
he had ordered a garrison to put in repair and a military watch kept." 



172 TJic Records of Oxford. 

the Slimmer past, was laid before the board and there examined 
and stated the whole sum, with other incidental charges amomit- 
ing to forty pounds, fifteen shillings, tliree and a half pence. 
" Ordered paid Dec. 24th, 1703." 

— Council Rec, 509. 

In 1704 Bernon had transactions in business with people in 
New Oxford. 



CHAPTER XY. 

J. Dudley to G. Bernon. 

" Boston, SOiJ/i May, 1707. 
" Sr : I am very unhappy in my affayres at Oxford, both 
with your Cooper & the Jiegro Tom. I must desire you to 
take other care of your alfayres than to improve such ill men 
that disquiet the place, that I have more trouble with them 
than with seven other towns. If you do not remove them 
yourself, I shall be obliged to send for the Negro & turn him 
out of the place, & I understand Cooper is so criminal that the 
law will dispose of him. I pray you to use your own there 
not to Destroy or Disturb the Governour or your best friend, 
who is, Sr., your humble servt., " J. Dudley. 

" Send an honest man and he shall be welcome. I pray you 
to show what I write to Mr. Gritrnon." 

" To Mr. Gabriel Bernon, Newport, Road Hand." 

Mr. Bernon soon makes an engagement with new tenants. 



Note 1. — In 1704, James Laborie left Oxford, and was in October 
established over the French church in New York. A final abandon- 
ment of the settlement ensued, and no further record of its history is to 
be traced. 

Note 2. — The accounts of the Chamoiserie show that Oxford con- 
tinued to be occu])ied by the French until 1704. 



Bernoii's Contract. 1/3 

Ageeement between Gabriel Bernon and Oliver and Na- 

THANAEL CoLLER. 

" Know all meii by these presents that I Gabril Bernon hath 
bargind with and let vnto Oluer Coller and "Nathanel Coller 
uiy howse and farme at new oxford Called the olde mill; with 
four Cowes and Calfes the which said farm and Cowes I have 

let for five years upon the conditions as foloweth that they 

brake np and rnonnure and plant with orchod two Accrs and 
half of land with in the s^ Term of Fine and also to spend the 
remain-part of their time to work upon the other lands ; and 
all that is soed dow now to ly to English grass and at the end 
of fine years for s*^ oluer Coller and Nathanel Coller for them 
to reshie up peceble posestion of the s^ hous farm and four 
Cowes and Calves and half the increes to the s^ Gabril Berncm 
or his heirs or asigns the s^ two Acers and half of land ly a boue 
the spring on the side of the hill ; and for thare in Conrigment 
I haue let them one pare of oxen for one year, the which s"* 
oxen they must Deliuer to me at s<i term ; and in case the oxen 
be lost they must make them good ; Exsept by the enemy, 
"to the "performence of this our bargin we have heer unto 

set our hands in the presents of us 

memerandom they have 

ingaged to brak up half 

one Acer of land evere 

year and to pay the three 

first yers six shilling p year 

and two last years to 

pay tweny shilling p " The mark of X Oluer Coller 

year and we have " The mark of — Nathanael Coller 

ualled the s*^ four 

Cows at tw pounds 

" Joseph Twichels 
"Thomas Allerton" 



1 74 The Records of Oxford. 

G. Bernon to Gov. Dudley. 

Providence, \st March^ 1710. 
Translation. 

" Mr. Dudley your son told me the last time I had the 
honour to see him, that it was your Excellency's design to re-es- 
tablish New Oxford : as it also appears through the public news. 

" I hope your Excellency will be so good as to take into con- 
sideration the fact that Mr. Hoogborn has done his utmost to 
ruin my interest in the said Oxford. 

" He has caused Couper to abandon the old mill, and Thomas 
Allerton [to leave] my other house, threatening that he would 
hinder them from haying, and [declaring] that I had no power 
to settle them. When I made complant of this to him he told 
me that he would drive me from the place, myself. 

"Samuel Hagburn was one of the thirty English settlers, and 
was the first named in the deed of Dudley, etc., to them. In 
1726 an entry was made of an extract from his wnll, on the 
records of the Congregational Church, by which, although not 
a member of it, he bequeathed to it the sura of fifty pounds." 
For that I have been treated, after spending at the said Oxford 
more than fifteen hundred pistoles [and] the better part of my 
time during more than twenty years possession. 

" Should it please your Excellency to examine the case you 
will find that I have chief had at heart the furtherance of your 
Excellencies wishes. I have been found singularly attached to 
your person, more than to all else that I have had in the world. 

" It is notorious that the said Mr. Hoogborn, your brother, 
has caused the planks of my granary to be torn up ; that he 
has conveyed them elsewhere, and that by his orders the oxen 
that I was reserving to be fattened have been put to work." 

By this record, notwithstanding Dudley's censure of Coo- 
per, he remained in occupancy of the farm called the " Old 
Mill," and that he and the Collers had been dispossessed by 
Haffburn. 



G. Bernoii s Letter to Dudley. 175 

Bern on thus rel3'ing upon his possession to ownership of 
the lands which were occupied by his tenants without convey- 
ance by deed. 

G. Bkrnon to the Son of Gov. Dudley. 
" Sir: ''October, 1720. 

" I would entreat you to assist me in petitioning his Excel- 
lency and tlie General Assembly, inasmuch as the inhabitants 
of New Oxford oppose my rights to lands. 

'•The Court and Government can confirm my title, and then 
I can dispose of what I have there, and pay my debts, and have 
wherewithal to help myself ; and thereby ease my mind and 
body, which is now more than the Pope can do. 

" The above said inhabitants oppress me as I can make it 
appear by Maj. Buor, who w^onld have bought my plantation. 
The inhabitants told him not to do it; — that my title was 
nothing worth, that they also pretended that they would dis- 
pute my title with Mr. Dudley and Mr. Thompson. They 
also abused me in a very outrageous manner in Maj. Bnors 
presence ; as he states in his certificate, which I make bold to 
send to you enclosed in this. 

"Ephraim Town, John Elliott, and John ChamberHn. for 
whom I have advanced considerably to uphold my said planta- 
tion, will not pay tne what they owe me. Besides, the loss of 
my servant, who was drowned, was fifty pounds loss to me. 
These men, and one Josiah Owen, my last tenant, hugger-mug- 
ger together to clieat me of a hundred pounds in cattle and 
movables that I had upon the place, so that I am not able to 
advance any more. 

"I see myself about ruined by this oppression and malice. 
Sir — you are perfectly acquainted with the affairs at New 
Oxford, and I do not understand things as well as I would. 
Therefore I intreat of you. Sir, to help me. Your charity and 
generosity are (so to speak) interested in it. 



1/6 The Records of Oxford. 

" I am so hard driven by my dunning creditors — the masons 
and (;arpenters and others that I employed to build m_y house 
in Providence, that I know not what to do : and, besides my 
wife now lying in, six or seven children implore my compas- 
sion, which makes me implore that of Government, and yours, 
Sir, that my title may be confirmed, after a possession of 36 
years, so that I may sell it. Within 30 years I have laid out on 
it £200, for which reason my family did slight me, as well as 
my best friends. I have always been protected by Mr. Dudley, 
your honored father, who always thought as 1 did, that I might 
sell it, and not be in any wise molested. But I don't know 
whether it won't be a mistake. Indeed, one cannot always 
forsee the events of things, often hid from the wisest. But 
this I see, — the Evil one still reigns, and God suffers it, to try 
his children. 

"My great desire is to keep myself in the fear of God, and 
to love my neighbor, and to seek lawful means to maintain my 
family. My great age of nearly eighty years does not dispense 
me of tills duty. I address myself to you with all humility to 
assist me, that J may be assisted by the Governor. Such a 
testimony of your love and favor will rescue me, to terminate 
my days in America, or to return once again to Europe. 
Surely my staying or going depends upon the action of the 
Assembly. But be it as it will. Sir, as an honest, well-minded 
man ought, I pray for the government, and all the faithful in 
Christ. "Gabriel Beenon. 

" From my chambers at Mr. Harper's, 

"adjoining unto Judge Sewalls, Oct. 1720." 

" In Sept., 1714, it was voted that ' the committy shall take 
care to notify Mr. Gabriel Bernon to come and join us in set- 
tling division lines between us and him,'* Again in Oct., 
1718, a similar vote was taken." f 

* Prop. Rec. 3. t Ibid. 27. 



Bcnioiis Grants of Laud. 177 

" Bnt there was a good reason why this matter was not at- 
tended to by Bernon. The complicated nature of the case 
is shown in his deed from Dudley and company. Dii Tuft'eau, U 
at the beginning of the settlement had ' elected ' seven hun- 
dred and fifty acres, which were deeded to him and Bernon 
jointly. Afterward, to Bernon, seventeen hundred and fifty 
acres were granted, which were deeded to him in his own right, 
and also to Bondet were deeded two hundred acres.* These 
grants were all embraced in one plat and conveyed as a whole. 
We have no intimation of a mutual division, and without this, 
no power but a court could give to either of the grantees an 
indisjoutable right to a single acre which should be set off and 
located. 

"Another point which is shown in the deed, added to the 
complications, namely; that a very valuable portion of the 
land taken up and occupied by jDii Tuffeau and Bernon, jointly, 
was not included in the conveyance. This was a long triangu- 
lar tract of nearly five hundred acres, lying between Bernon's 
land, as deeded, and the land of the village proprietors. Its 
westerly line ran over the high land between the site of the 
fort and Bondet hill, and continuing in a course north, thirteen 
degrees east, crossed the present Sutton road at the fork, about 
three-fourths of a mile easterly of Main street. This line is 
called in the town records, 'Bernon's line,' and has been 
marked on the western boundary of the estate now known as 
the Ebenezer Rich farm, by permanent division fences to the 
present day. 

" On this tract were the fort and the grounds around it, where 
Bernon had expended considerable money, and the upper mill 
site. It also enclosed some of the best farming lands within 
the limits of the town. Of course Bernon was anxious to re- 
tain it, but he could plead possession only, as ground of owner- 



* There is no proof that Bondet ever had possession of this grant or 
received any benefit from it. 



w 



1/8 Tlie Records of Oxjord. 

ship. In conveying his property he followed the deed he had 
received from Dadle}^ and companj, and did not include the 
disputed tract. 

" I2iLT\iffeauJiaving died before the autumn of 1720, Ber- 
non applied to the probate court of Suffolk count j for a letter 
of administration on his estate, as chief creditor. This was 
granted Dec. 5th, and he was enabled in due course of law 
thereby to take possession of the tvventy-Hve hundred acres as 
sole owner. Negotiations witli Thomas Mayo, Samuel Davis 
and William Weld, all of Roxbury, soon followed, and a sale 
of the tract was made to them early in the spring of 1721, for 
twelve hundred pounds, current money of New England.* 

" On March 27th, 1721, at a meeting of the village proprie- 
tors to hear what the ' Gentlemen which signifie that they 
have bought Mr. Demon's farm, have to be communicated to 
the inhabitants and proprietors of Oxford village,' and to 'act 
as shall be thouo-lit best to come at theii- own rio-hts : ' — 

" ' Voted and chose Dea. John Town, Benoni Twichel, and 



* The quantity of land sold was twentj'-five hundred acres, and the 
description in the deed is as follows: "Beginning at a walnut tree 
marked S. D., standing at the southwest corner of Alanchaug, and thence 
running west, fifteen degrees south, three hundred and fifty-two perches, 
from thence to be set off by a line to be drawn parallel to the utmost 
easterly line bounds of the said Oxford village and township, as far as 
will complete the full quantity of twenty-eight hundred and seventy- 
two acres." 

Of this were reserved one hundred and seventy-two acres of meadow 
in one piece which Dudley gave to the village. But the two hundred 
acres for Bondet's farm are not mentioned. A provision in it required 
the annual payment of forty shillings quit-rent to Dudley, etc. This 
deed was dated March 16th, 1730-1, and is recorded in Suf. Co. Rec, 
XXXV, 119. 

It is said that Weld, coming to see the premises in the spring after the 
snow had gone, was dissatisfied, and soon after sold his share to Davis. 

"Thomas Mayo never came to Oxford, but his son John did, and 
Samuel Davis came in 1728 or 9, probably the latter." 



Bernons Deed to Mayo, Davis & Weld. 179 

Isaac Learned ' to act as a committee to establish the line be- 
tween the said farm and the viUage, and instructed them to 
'improve' John Chandler, Esq., as surveyor. 

"The report of this committee, dated April 11th, 1721, was 
accepted at a meeting of the proprietors, Sept. 21st, 1721. In 
accordance with its terms, a portion of land at the north end of 
the Bernon tract was released to the village, and the triangular 
plat which had been in dispute was yielded to the purchasers. 

" John Mayo, son of Thomas, made a home on the height 
near the fort, and died there, and his descendants continued to 
occupy the premises for many years. Davis chose for his 
dwelling, a spot nearly half a mile northerly from the fort, on 
the farm now known as the Nathaniel Davis place, where he 
died.* 

" The facts in connection with the delivery of the deed to 
Bernon are remarkable. It will be remembered that it was 
drawn May 21th, 1GS8, probably npon the completion of the 
contract to settle the thirty families. There was in it, how- 
ever, a consideration which had not been rendered, namely, the 
building of a grist mill, for which reason it was not at once de- 
livered. A little less than two years passed, the mill was built, 
and Bernon had Church's receipt for the same. Two days 
after the date of this receipt, we find two of the grantors 
acknowledging the deed before a magistrate — but still it was 
not delivered. Years passed; the first colony flourished a while 
and became extinct— the second colony began and contimied five 
years and was abandoned — for nine years afterward the planta- 
tion lay waste. Then the thirty English families came in and 
laid the foundations of a permanent settlement. Bernon gave 
up his right in the mills, and gave the valuable stones andirons 
for the benefit of the new colonv. At last, after his hopes and 



* Persons living in Oxford well recollected the leaden sush and the 
small diamond panes of glass of the old windows of this ancient house 
of Samuel Davis, which many years ago gave place to more modern ones. 



ll 



1 80 The Records of Oxford. 

expectations had been again and again disappointed, and he had 
grown old, and become unable for lack of means to assist the 
settlement further, on Feb. 5th, 1716, nearly twenty-eight 
years after the deed was written, it was acknowledged by 
Dudle}', and passed over to him." 



"Six days afterward, Feb. lltli, 1716, he conveyed tlie property for 
a thousand pounds to James Bowdoin,^'' who held it until March 16th, 
1720-1, when he re-conveyed it to Bernon,f who the same day executed 
the deed to Mayo, Davis and Weld." 

* Suf. Rec. xxxi, 79. 

\ "This conveyance was made by returning the deed he had received, 
with an indorsement upon it in legal form, signed, sealed, and wit- 
nessed by John Mayo, Samuel Tyler, Jr., and acknowledged before John 
Chandler, Justice of Peace." — Ibid. 

Deed, Dudley, etc., to Bernon. 

"This indenture made the 24th day of May A. D. 1688 * * * be- 
tween Joseph Dudley of Roxbury, William Stoughton of Dorchester 
* * * Esqs. Robert Thompson of London * * * Merchant, Daniel 
Cox of London aforesaid. Doctor in Physick, and John Blackwell of 
Boston * * * Egq_ on the one part and Gabriel Bernon of Boston 
aforesaid, Merchant on the other part — Witnesseth 

" Whereas Isaac Barton, [Bertrand,] Gentleman, hath heretofore had 
the allowance [of said parties of the first part] to elect and make choice 
of 500 acres of land * * * within * * * the southeast angle of 
[a tract of land called New Oxford village] to and for the use of him 
the said Barton and the said Grabriel Bernon, * * * and whereas 
since the electing of the said 500 acres, he [BetrandJ hath proposed that 
he may have 250 acres more of said land * * * to the use afore- 
said ; and he the said Gabriel Bernon that he may have 1750 acres more of 
the said lands, * * * adjoining to the said 500 acres to and for the 
the use of said Gabriel Bernon, his heirs and assigns — 

" Now these presents witness that [the above named parties of the 
first part] as well for and in consideration that the said Gabriel Bernon 
hath undertaken and by these presents doth undertake and engage 
within twelve months after the day of the date of these presents 
at his own proper cost and charges to erect build and maintain a 
Corn or Grist Mill in some convenient and fitting place within the said 



Deed of Gov. Dudley to Bernon. i8i 

By another paper in the MS. Collection, it appears that 
Mr. Bernon petitioned the King in council for certain privi- 
leges, which indicate the objects to which the enterprise of this 
adventurer was directed. It is entitled, " the humble Petition 
of Gabriel Bernon of Boston in New England." It states : 



town of Oxford for the use of the inhabitants of said town and village 
[unto which mill * * * said inhabitants shall be obliged] at all 
times forever hereafter to make tlieir suit as also for and in con- 
sideration of the sum of 5 shillings * * * paid by said Bernon 
* * * and the rents and convenants hereafter mentioned * * * 
[the parties of the first part] do grant bargain sell and confirm to the 
said Isaac Bartj)n and Gabriel Bernon * * * all that tract * * * 
of 5(Rrimreir"'* * * elected as aforesaid by said J[gaap_ Barton^ to 
hold to them the said Isaac Barton and Gabriel Bernon * * * and 
all that and those 256"acres more desired by said * * * Barton as 
aforesaid, and 1750 acres more desired by the said Gabriel Bernon ad- 
joining to the said 500 acres * * * within the southeast angle of 
Oxford village * * * as followeth * * * 

"Beginning at a walnut tree marked (S. D.) standing at the west 
angle of Manchaug — and thence running W. 15'= S. 352 perches, and 
from tlience to be set off by a line to be drawn parallel to the utmost 
easterly line and bounds of the said Oxford village * * * as far as 
will complete the full quantity of 2873 acres * * * so that if the 
said line shall not extend unto and include and take in the utmost wes- 
terly part of the said 500 arces * * * said Barton elected for him- 
self and the said Gabriel Bernon * * * the [said 500 acres shall 
nevertheless be included * * =1- within the * * * 2872 acres 
aforementioned * * * the whole quantity of 2872 acres shall be set 
out accordingly whereof the forementioned 500 acres and 250 acres more 
desired by the said Isaac Barton to be jointly held and enjoyed by them 
tlie said Isaac Barton an'd Gabriel Bernon * * * also 1750 acres 
more tliei^oYto be held and enjoyed by him the said Gabriel Bernon [his 
heirs and assigns for their use and behoof] and 200 acres more thereof to 
the use of Daniel Bondet, his heirs and assigns forever. 

" Excepting and reserving to [said parties or the first part] 172 acres of 
meadow land * * * in one entire parcel and adjoining unto the 
lands of Manchaug aforesaid [in such place as they may choose.] 

*' And providing [the parties of the first part or any two or more of 



1 82 The Records of Oxford. 

" That being informed of your majesty's pleasure, particularly 
in encouraging the manufactory of Rosin, Pitch, Tarr, Tur- 
pentine, etc., in New England, in which manufactory your 
Petitioner has spent seven years time and labor and consider- 
able sums of money and has attained to such knowledge and 
perfection, as that the said comodities made and sent over by 
him have beene here approved of and bouglit for your Majesty's 
stores ; your Petitioner's seal and affection to your Majesty en- 
couraged him to leave his hal)itation and affairs (being a mer- 
chant) and also his family to make a voyage to England on 
purpose humbly to propose to your Majesty in how great a 
measure and cheap price the said Navall stores may be made 

them resident in New England may laj- out over such lands] sucli com- 
mon paths or ways * * * as they shall judge necessary or commodious 
for the said [township or village.] Yielding and paying therefor yearly 
and every year on the 24th of March at or in the Town house of Boston 
aforesaid, unto [said parties of the first part] or to their certain attorney 
deputy or agent by them * h; * appointed to receive the same, the 
annual rent of 40 shillings current money of New England. * * * 
And the said Gabriel Bernon for himself his heirs and assigns * * * 
doth convenant, grant and agree with [the parties of the first part] that 
he [or his heirs or assigns] will well and truly pay or cause to be paid to 
the said [parties of the first part] the said yearly rent [as aforesaid] and 
that in case of non-payment thereof or any part thereof [it sliall be law- 
ful for the parties of the first part to] enter said premises and distrain 
and the distresses there found from time to time to lead carry away sell 
or dispose at such rates as they can get for the same * * * ^nd with 
the proceeds imburse and satisfy themselves [for all arrearages and 
charges] rendering the overplus (if any be) to him the said Gabriel Ber- 
non * * * 
\\ " And that in case of his the said Isaac Barton and Gabriel Bernon 

\\ deserting or relinquisliing the said lands'tor there shall not be found on 

said premises sufficient goods] for satisfying within any twelve months 
after the same shall grow due, this present grant and all the matters and 
things therein contained shall thenceforth cease, determine, and be ut- 
terly null and void, and the lands * * * shall revert * * * 
unto [the aaid parties of the first part] and shall and may lawfully be by 



Bcrnons Petition to the King. 183 

and brought into any of your Majesty's kingdomes to the great 
promotion and advantage of the Trade and Commerce of your 
Majesty's subjects of New England, all which is most evident 
by the annexed paper." 

He prays his Majesty to take the premises into consideration, 
and to grant him his royal patent or order for providing and 
furnishing his Majesty's fleet with the said stores under the con- 
ditions his Majesty in his royal wisdom should think fit, or 
otherwise to except him out of any patent to be granted for the 
said manufactory, that he, may have liberty to go on and con- 
tinue in the said manufactory in any part of New England." 

This paper is indorsed: "Pcticon of Gabriel Bernon." 

them eutered upon, possessed aad enjoyed as in their former estate 

* *: * 

" [The parties of tlie first partj couvenant and agree with said Isaac 
Bartron and Gabriel Bernon their heirs and assigns [that they the said 
feartron and Bernon performing the afore named acts faithfully as speci- 
IfeSTuTay] iiave hold and enjoy the premises hereby granted against [said 
parties of the first part] or any other person or persons lawfully claiming 
or to claim the same or any part thereof * * * by, from or under 
them or any of them. 

"In witness whereof the said Joseph Dudley, William Stoughton, Eob- 
ert Tliompson, Daniel Cox and John Blackwell have hereunto set tlieir 
hands and seals the day and year first above written. Joseph Dudley 
and a seal, WillizUI STOUGnxoN and a seal, John Blackwell and a seal. 
Feb 6th 1G90 William Stoughton Esq. and John Blackwell, Esq. 
acknowledge this instrument to be their voluntary act and deed. 

" Before Sam'. Sew all AssHt 
"Signed sealed and delivered in presence of us by Joseph Dudley, 
William Stoughton and John Blackwell, Daniel Allen, Richard Wilkins, 
Jno. Herbert Howard, Suffolk etc., Boston 5th of February 1716. 

" The Hon. Joseph Dudley Esq., personally appeared before me the Sub- 
scriber one of his ^lajesty's justices of the Peace in Said County, and 
did acknowledge this Instrument to be his free act and deed. 

"Samuel Lynde — February 5th 1716. 

'' Received and accordingly entered and examined. 

"John Ballantyne Regr." 

Suffolk Co. Rec. XXX, 268. 



1 84 TJic Records of Oxford. 

" Pcapiers qui regarde deux voyages do Londre pour les 
affaires a fabriquer des Resme. 

Examne le premier Octobre 1719." 

By a statement of G, Bernon, intended to prove liis claim 
upon the plantation, it appears that he considered " the Plan- 
tation of New Oxford " indebted to him for 2,500 acres of land, 
besides the amount of expenses laid out by him upon the place. 
This claim appears to have been made about the year 1717, or 
1720; for on his account there is a charge of interest " for above 
30 years." The statement alleges that 500 acres of the plan- 
tation were "granted by their excellencys Mr. Dudley and Mr. 
Stoughton to Isaac Bertrand Du Tuffeau and Gabriel Bernon 
in the year iGSTT^'^and that 250 acres wei"e " granted since, 
making in all 750 aikers ; " and that " their excellencys Mr. 
Dudley and Mr. Stonghtondid grant to the said Mr. Bernon for 
his own use alone 1750 aikers more, which makes in all 2500 
aikers, which Mr, Bernon justly claims, upon which he hath 
built a corn miln, a wash leathern miln and a saw miln, and 
laid out some other considerable expenses to improve the town 
of New Oxford, as he has made appear by the testimonys of 
several worthy gentlemen whose names he has hitherto sub- 
joined." 

By a plan of Mr. Gabriel Bernon's land in Oxford, taken in 
1717, it appears, that it measured 2,672 acres, "exclusive of 
Mr. Daniel Bondet's of 200 acres, and out of said 2672 acres 
must come out 172 acres of meadow in one entire piece, which 
Mr. Dudley and Compa. give to the village.'' The tract of 
land " within this Plan " was estimated by the selectmen of 
Oxford " to be worth one^thousand pound; " and this valuation 
was certified by them on the plan, 11 January 1716-17. 
Signed Richard Moore, Benoni Twitchei, Isaac Larned. An- 
other certificate was given on the same paper by the selectmen of 
Mendon, concerning the justness of the above valuation, add- 



I 



Bernon's Petition to Gov. Shutc. 185 

ing, " tliat we know nothing but the said Bernon hath been in 
the quiet possession of said land for or nere thirty years." 
Signed Tliomas Sanford, Robert Evans, Jacob Aldrich. 

November, 1720, Bernon made application for reimburse- 
ment of money expended upon the French settlement, 

" The HoxoRABLE Petition of Gabriel Bernon of New Oxford, 
IN New England. 
"To his excellency Samuel Shute, and to his Majesty's council, and 
house of representatives in General Court assembled, Gabriel Bernon, one 
of the most ancient families in Rochelle, in France, begs of your excel- 
lency and honor graciously to assist him in his great necessity, and that 
your excellency and honors would be pleased to take into your wise con- 
sideration ; that your petitioner, upon the breach of the edit of Nantes, 

and the persecution of France, fled to London; upon his arrival 

Tefferau, Esq., treasurer of the Protestant Churches of France presented 
your petitioner to the honorable, the Society for the propogating of the 
Gospel among the Indians in New England; of which Mr. Thompson, 
the Governor, offered to instal him in the said Society, and offered him 
land in the government of the Massachusetts Bay, whereupon one 
Isaas^ertrand du Tiiffeaji,_desired your excellency's and honors peti- 
tion ' to assist him. the said Bertrand du Tuffeau, to come over to New 
England, to settle a plantation"lor~nreTr7eTuge';"' which he did, by ad- 
vancing unto the said^Tiiffeaujthe sum of two hundred pounds sterling; 
and since three hundred pounds eight shilHngs and ten pence; which 
with the exchange and interest from that time would amount to above 
one thousand pounds. The said Isa^g^du Tuffeau being arrived at Bos- 
ton, with letters of credit from Major Thompsonlind your humble peti- 
tioner, delivered them to his late excellency Joseph Dudley, Esq., and 
the honorable William Stoughton, Esq., deceased, who did grant to the 
said JI41. Tuffeau seven hundred and fifty acres of land for the said peti- 
tioner at New- Oxford, when he laid out or spent the above said money. 
Further more, the said.JBu,Tufigau did allure your excellency's and hon- 
or's petitioner, by exciting of him by letters to come to Boston, as he 
can show. The said Du Tuffeau's ' being (through poverty) forced to aban- 
don the said plantation," sold his cattle and other moveables for his own 
particular use, and went to London, and there died in a hospital.' Your 
excellency's and honor's petitioner being excited by letters of the said 
Tuffeau's shipped himself, his family, and servants, with some other 
24 



1 86 The Records of Oxford. 

To prove his claims on the phmtationof New Oxford Bernon 
gives the testimonies of several wortiiy gentlemen whose names 
he has hitherto subjoined : 

The four elders of William Fox Governor Usber 

the French Church Benj. Faneuil William Sloughton 

Mousset ^ Daillie minis- P. Jermon Increase Mather mtre 

Rawling I tre of the Jacques Montier Charles Morton mtre 

Charden ( French Paix Cazaneau Jer. Dummer 

Babut J Church. Abraham Sauvages. Nehemiah Walter minr. 

Jacques Depau John Butcher 

Jean Beaudoin Laurence Hammond 

Rene Grignon 

Phellipe Emgerland 

By the Inhabitants of New Oxford 

Montel Ober Jermon 

J. Dupen Jean Maillet 

Capt. Jermon Andre Segourne 

Peter Cante Jean Milleton 

Bercau Ca6ini Peter Canton 

Elie Dupen &c, 

" The Widow Leveufe Jean Johnson of which her husband and three chil- 
dren was Ml and murder by the Ingen." 



families, as can be made to appear; and paid to Captain Fayle, and 
Captain Ware, passage for above forty persons. Your excellency's and 
honor's petitioner being arrived at Boston, presented letters from Major 
Thompson, afore mentioned to the above said Dudley and Stoughton, 
Esqrs. who were pleased (besides the seven hundred and fifty acres that 
were granted to Bertranddu Tnffeau and your liumble petitioner,) to grant 
to your petitioner one thousand seven hundred and fifty acres of land 
more ; and for a more authentick security, his late Excellency and Honor 
was pleased to accompany me to New Oxford, to put me into possession 
of the said two thousand five hundred acres of land, which I have peace- 
fully enjoyed far better than these thirty years last past, having spent 
above two thousand pounds to defend the same from the Indians, who 
at divers times have ruined the Sciid Plantations,* and have murdered 
men, women, and children. 

" Your excellency's and honor's petitioner does now most humbly repre- 
sent, that the inhabitants of New Oxford, do now dispute my right and 
title in order to hinder me from the sale of the said plantations, which 
would put me to the utmost extremity, being now near eiglity years of 
age, and having several children by my first wife, and so seeing children 



Records of English Settlement. 187 

" Ptecords from theEnglisli Settlement. May 13th 1713. 
"Surveyed for Joseph Chamberlin sen^ Round the great 
house 40 acres being a home lott in Oxford ; and four acres 
and one Rood in it being allowed for a high way going llirough 

* * * surveyed by John Chandler Jun. approved and 
established by order of the original proprietors provided he 
pay for the bettering of his lott by former Improvement and 
building. 

" By John Chandler who made such an agreement at the be- 
ginning." — Village Rec. 13. 

Joseph Chamberlin's house lot in the English settlement of 
Oxford, was on the French Plantation of Rev. Daniel Bondet 
and subsequently in the English settlement it came into the 
possession of the descendants of Thomas Mayo. 

Joseph Chamberlin's choice of a house lot is the first on re- 
cord, being by estimation the most valuable.* 

" Oxford the 4 of february 1714 Joseph Charabbarline siner 

of my children— I have since married an English women, by whom also 
I have several children, all which have dependance (under God) for a 
subsistence on me, after I have spent more than ten thousand pounds 
towards the benefit of the country; in building ships, making nails, and 
promoting the making of stuffs, hats, and rosin etc. 

" Your petitioner, therefore, doth most humbly beg your excellency and 
honor's compassion and that you would graciously be pleased to grant me 
such titles as may confirm to me and mine the said two thousand five 
hundred acres of land without any misunderstanding, clear and free 
from any molestation either from the inhabitants of the said New Oxford. 
or any pretensions of the above said BeiMimnd^ du Tuff eajj so that I and 
mine may either dispose of, or peaceably and quietlylive upon, the said 
plantation of New Oxford ; and your petitioner shall ever pray for, and 
devote himself to your government, beging leave to assure you, that he 
is, may it please your Excellency's and Honor's your most Dutiful and 
Obedient Servant. u Qabriel Beknon." 

*The Oxford records state that in 1713, when the English settlement 
was commenced, there were French orchards and a house once belonging 
to the Huguenots, which were regarded by the English as improvements 



1 88 The Records of Oxford. 

House loute beiu uponn bouadet liel* so caled, bounded on the 
nourest vvitli a stake and a hape of stons rouneing a hundred 
and twenty rodes soourl}" on burnnnn linef to a black oke run- 
ning westerly sixty rods to a stack and a hepe of stones then 
ronning nurarly on liundred rods to a stack an Hepe stones 
foust named * * * provided he pays as tow men shal 
judge is beater than other lots in sd village." Ibid.f. 

" The highway which passed through this plantation was 
Woodstock ' great trail ' which passed from Johnson [Jansen] 
plain north easterly over Bondet hill near the ' great house ' 
which stood on its eastern slope," 

A large hollow in the earth now marks the site of the " great 
house" which was once the home of Kev. Daniel Bondet. 

Mr. John Mayo who was a native of Oxford, and lived near 
the place said it was used as a tavern in the second French set- 
tlement or early in the English town history. 

In by-gone time the old Boston road or old Connecticut road 
was the thoroughfare in a quiet way from Boston to the Con- 
necticut towns. 

It entered the town from what was afterward the Sutton 
road, passing near the mills of Ebenezer D. Rich, and from this 
point entering the road which afterward passed the farm house 
of Samuel Davis, and continued on until the foot of the French 



to the plantations, for •wliich those who came into possession of them 
were required to make a suitable compensation to the village corpora- 
tion. 

"Jan. 25th 1714 Voted that Ebbenezar Humphry should have the 
orchard joining to the South west corner of his home lot making allow- 
ance to the Town in money to full of what tow men shall judge it to be 
worth.'' — Oxford Records, p. 69. 

There are vestiges of this Huguenot orchard still remaining; some very 
ancient trees with hollow trunks are said to have been standing in the 
English settlement. 

*Rev. Daniel Bondet's Hill (plantation.) 
t Gabriel Beruon's boundary line. 



Rev. Dr. Holmes' Visit to Oxford. 189 

fort hill was reached, and then, when near the honse of late John 
Mayo in the first English settlement, designated as near the site 
of a French house, about one-half mile distant from the French 
church and churchyard, here the road entered a broad Indian 
path known as the " Woodstock trail," passing near the resi- 
dence of the late John Hurd and entering the highway near 
the late PelfiiL.Shuinway's residence, and continued to Wood- 
stock. The present highway from these points is nearly on the 
paths of the old Connecticut road and Woodstock trail. 

" It was voted * * ^ in Nov, 30, 1714 that the com- 
mitty shall begin to lay out meddow att East End of the great 
meddovv, from thence to the meddow on EUiat's mill brook, 
from thence to the croth of the Keveir so down strame the Re- 
veir; to the line from thence to bundits meddow." [Bondet's 
meadow.] 

Remains of the Fkenoh Fort. 

Dr. Holmes writes : " My first visit to Fort Hill in Oxford 
was 20th April, 1819. 

" Mr. Mayo, who owns the farm on which the fort stands, 
believes that his grandfather purchased it of one of the French 
families ; and Mr. Sigonrny, of Oxford, writes it was bought 
of his ancestor, Andrew Sigonrny.* 

" I measured the fort by paces, and found it 25 paces by 35 
within the fort ; on the outside I discovered signs of a well, 
and, on inquiry, was informed that a well had recently been 
tilled up there. 

" On a second visit to the fort, in September of the same 
year, 1819, I was accompanied, and aided in my researches, 

* The ancestor of Mr. Mayo purchased the estate of Gabriel Bernon, 
the president of the French settlement. 

The ancestor of Capt. Sigonrny had taken this plantation as his estate 
and resided at the fort while in the settlement, as the keeper of the French 
garrison — Bernon — could not give a deed to Sigonrny, as he had not re- 
ceived a conveyance of the land by a deed at that time. 



1 90 The Records of Oxford. 

by the Rev. Mr. Brazer, then a professor in our University, who 
went over from Worcester, and met me by agreement in Ox- 

, ford. We traced the lines of the bastions of the fort. 

] " We next M'ent in search of the Johnson place, memorable for 

(the Indian massacre in 1G96. Mr. Peter Shnmway, a very 
aged man, of French descent, who lives about thirty rods dis- 
\ tant from it, showed us the spot. It is at a considerable dis- 
\ tance from the villao;e, on the north side of the road to Dud- 
\ ley,* and is now overgrown with trees. We carefully explored 
' it, but found no relics. 

" The last year (1825) I called at Mr. Shumway's. He told 
me that he was in his ninety-first year ; that his great grand- 
father was from France ; and that tlie plain on which he lives is 
called 'Johnson's Plain.' 

Fkench Chuech-Yaed. 

" While Mr, Brazer was prosecuting our inquiries concerning 
a second fort and a church that had been mentioned to me by 
Mrs. Butler, he received a letter (1819) from Mr. Andrew Si- 
gourny, informing that Captain Humphrey, of Oxford, says his 
parents told him there was a fort on the land upon which 
he now lives, and also a French meeting-house, and a burying- 
ground, with a number of graves ; that he had seen the stones 
that were laid on the top of them, as they lay turf, and that one 
of the graves was much larger than any of the others ; that 
they were east and west, but this, north and south; and that 
the Frenchman who lived in this place, named Bourdine, had 
been dead but a few years."! 

" In May, 1825, 1 visited Captain Ebenezer Humphrey, and 



* The north side of the "old road" to Dudley, which parsed Mr. 
Shumway's residence. 

t The flat stones were placed on the ground to preserve them from 
the molestations of wild beasts. The small fort and orchard were 
north of the church. 



Capt. Humphrey s Reminiscences. 191 

obtained from him satisfactory information concerning the plan 
of this second fort, and the meeting-hon&e, and the burjing- 
gronnd. 

" Captain Humplirey was in his eighty-fourth year. He told 
me that his grandfather was from England, and that his father 
was from "Woodstock, and came to Oxford to keep garrison 
(in the second French settlement). He himself now lives where 
his father lived, about half a mile south-east from Oxford vil- 
lage. His house is near a mill, standing upon a small stream 
that runs on the left near the great road leading to Norwich. 

" About fifty or sixty rods from his house he showed me the 
spot where the fort stood, and near it the lot upon which 
were the meeting-house and biirying-ground. No remains of 
either were visible. He pointed to an excavation of the earth, 
where, he said, was a well, which had been filled up. It was 
at the place of the fort, and had been, probably, within it. 

" In the lot there were apple trees, which, he told me, he heard 
liis father say, ' The French set out.'* 

"The field was under fine cultivation, but I could not forbear 
to express my regret that the memorial of the dead had not 
been preserved. 

"• He said an older brother of his had ploughed up the field, 
and it was in this state when it came into his possession. He 
told me that one of his oldest sisters said siie remembered the old 
horseblock that stood near the French meeting-house. 

" He said he had seen the blood on the stones of the Johnson 
(Jansen) house ; and that Mrs. Johnson on the night of the 
massacre went to Woodstock. 

"Bourdille t(so he pronounced it) lived near the brook which 



* The remains of the apple trees were visible in 1854 on the fort lot. 

His fatlier must have been a competent witness, for he was seventy 
years old when he told him this, and he himself was then twenty years 
of age. 

fThe same as Bourdillon. 



192 The Records of Oxford. 

runs by his house. The land of Captain Humphrey, upon 
which were a French fort, church and burying-gronnd, lies 
near the foot of Mayo's hill, on the summit of which stood tlie 
great fort, whose remains are still to be seen." * 

It was stated by the late Capt. Andrew Sigourny that Mrs. 
Andrew Sigoui-ny, Sr., who came from France, was buried in 
this church-yard, as was Mr. Jansen and his three children. 
Capt. Humphrey stated that he recollected twenty graves in the 
French burying-ground. 

Mr. Ebenezer Humphrey of Oxford, a grandson of late Captain 
Humphrey, and a resident propi'ietor of the landed estate of 
Captain Humphrey, in 1890 states that his grandfather informed 
his father " that the French church was on the north side of 
the extremely small church-yard," and to enter the church the 
narrow avenue of access passed through the cliurch-yard as in 
European countries. 

The locality of the church-yard is still pointed out by Eb- 
enezer Humphrey. Mrs. Adaline D. E. Moffat, a lineal de- 
scendant of Captain Humphrey (a grand-daughter), is the onl}' 
person now living to whom Captain Humphrey pointed out 
the grave of Jean Jansen as the one placed north and south in 
the French burying place. In the English settlement it was 
designated as the " giant's grave," his three children being 
placed at the foot of his grave, and is so designated at the 
present time. 

A few years since there was an old road that passed nearer 
to the French church-yard than the present road as it now 



*Dr. Holmes writes of this interesting place : '' We feel reluctant to 
take leave without some token of remembrance, beside the mere reci- 
tal of facts, some of which are dry in detail, while many others are but 
remotely associated with it. 

" Were any monumental stone to be found here, other memorials were 
less necessary. Were the cypress, or the weeping willow, growing here, 
nothing might seem wanting to perpetuate the memory of the dead." 



French Churchyard. I93 

passes to the fort. This old road entered the land of Ebenezer 
Humphrey in the lowlands, not far from a large oak tree, now 
standing (1890). It can be easily pointed out by the proprietor. 
This road was closed several years since as not required for travel. 
The old road is thus described : " A way'laid out from the four 
rod way to bcniemanne lands home lot, begining att a wihite 
oake tree on the lowlands on ye Southwardly Sideof thefrinch 
burying place, from thence marked on the North sid to ne- 
lands home lot ; said way is tow rods wide february the sixt 
on 1713-4." — Village Record. 

There is no authentic description of the French church 
and church-yard in "new oxford " excepting the one given by 
Captain Humphrey to Rev. Abiel Holmes, D. D.,and also the lo- 
cality of the church with its church-yard as pointed out by Cap- 
tain Humphrey to his descendants. "The large stones said 
to have been a part of the foundation of the building as seen 
within the memory of persons now living is erroneous, the 
stones having been excavated by the Humphrey family . " The 
church and church-yard lot of land can still be traced by the 
division wall or stone foundation of a fence separating it from 
the small fort lot containing an orchard and well as placed by 
Arthur Humphrey for cultivation, which fact Dr. Holmes so 
much regretted in his interview with Captain Humphrey. 

The landed estate belonging to the late Captain Humphrey 
has remained in the family since the English settlement of the 
town in 1713, his father being the original proprietor and is 
now owned and occupied by Ebenezer Humphrey, the fourth 
in descent from the first of the name.* 

In confirmation of Benjamin Kneeland's first lot of land 

* Ebenezer Humphrey, a lineal descendant of Captain Humphrey, and 
the present owner of this estate, which has been in the possession of his 
ancestors since 1713, induced by an antiquarian interest, opened one of 
the graves, as plainly indicated by the dimensions, but found only Ihe 
earth, which gave indications of what had been once a grave. 

25 



194 The Records of Oxford. ,"" 

taken in Oxford, and the old road leading to bis homestead, a 
deed given by Marvin Moore to Ebenezer Humphrey, in 
1796, contains the following item : 

" One tract of land in Oxford containing by estimation four 
acres be it more or less laid out southward from the house lot 
Benjamin Nealand (Kneeland) first took up in Oxford at a place 
called the stony runs it being in lew of meadow in said lot 
bounding southwardly on a four rod high-way going estward 
from Ebenezer Humphreys house to Thomas Hunkins* bounded 
part on said Humphrey land west and Northwardly and est- 
wardly on said Hunkins land however else bounded. "f 

At the French fort in Oxford there was a bridle-path winding 
down through the French orchard to the church and mills, and 
entering on to tlie Woodstock trail and the trading-house, or, as 
they were then styled, " the trucking-house," and to the dwell- 
ings of other refugees in the valley within view of the fort. 
There are still to be seen traces of bridle-paths and cart- ways 
which have long since gone into disuse. 

Many old paths abandoned, of which only the faintest tradi- 
tion and slightest trace remain of those silent highways. 

The natives had no roads; they had trails or paths to suit their 
convenience; they were quite well defined when the English 
colony came to this section of country. There were tracks 
through the forest from one Indian settlement to another, from 
the seacoast to the Connecticut valley. In 1630 the Wabquas- 
set Indians had visited Boston, passing over the Woodstock 
trail. 

The roads in those days were only bridle-paths, or, as they 
were called, " bridle-roads, " through the forest, unfenced and 
ungraded, and were indicated by marked or hewn trees and 
stones. The land-holders whose land bounded on these highways 

* The Stony run remains with its boundary wall the same as anciently 
at the present time. 

tKnown as once the Harvvood farm. 



French Families in Oxford. 



195 



or through whose land these rude highways passed, were allowed 
to raaintaiQ bars or huge gates across them to prevent their 
cattle from straying, as there was a great scarcity of fences. 

There were formerly gates to pass through leading to the 
residence of the late John Mayo at the French fort. 

The Names of Huguenot Families who Made a Settlement 
AT New Oxford. 



Benjamin Faneuil. 
Jean Boudoin. 

Mont el. 

I. Dupeux. 

Capt. Jermon [Germain]. 

{Charles [Germain]. 
Ober Germon [Germain]. 
Pierre Jermon [Germain]. 
Francois Bureau, I'aine. 
Elie Dupeux. 
Jean Martin. 
Andre Sigournais, Sr. 
Andre Sigournais, Jr. 
j Jean Mallet, anc. 
1 [amien] [Elder] in the 

French church. 
Peter Canton. 



M. Alard. 

M. Bourdille [Bourdillon]. 

Kene Grignon. 

Jean Jansen. 

Capt. de Paix Cazenean. 

Isaa^JSiiTli-and Elu Tuft'eaiL 

Pev. Jaques [James] Lab- 

orie.* 
Pev. Daniel Bondet. 
Jean Machet. 
Elie Boudinot. 
Daniel Johonnot. 
Jean Papineaux. 
Daniel Allen. 
Gabriel Du Pont. 
Jacques Du Pont. 



♦Jacques Laborie of Cardaillac, Proviace of Guyenne, completed the 
study of theology in the Academy of Geneva March 12, 1688 (Livre du 
Rectuer). 

He was ordained in Zurich Oct. 30, 1688, and went to England; he ar- 
rived at the time of King William's coronation ; he obtained a license 
from the Bishop of London, for teaching grammar and catechising in 
the parish of Stepney. He officiated in several of the French churches 
of London for nine or ten years, and then, in 1698, came to America. 

After a residence for some time in the French settlement in New Oxford 
as a clergyman over the French church, and engaged as a missionary 
among the savages in the vicinity, he went to New York, and was the 
minister of the French Reformed church in that city for two years, Oct. 
15, 1704, to August 25, 1706. After this he engaged in the practice of 



196 TJie Records of Oxford. 

Elie Boudinot was a wealthy French merchant of Marans, in 

France, known in his own country as Seigneur de Cressy. 

His name and title are found written on the fiy leaf of a book 

in the possession of one of his descendants. 

Gfabriel Bernon, President of the settlement ; Isaac B ertrand 

Dil.Tuffea,u was the Magistrate of the French settlement of 

J^^ew Oxford, being apiKniifgd'ljy the General Court on the 
i twenty-first day of June, 1G89, to bo " Commissioner for the 
\ Towne of New Oxford to have Authority for Tryall of small 
I Causes not exceeding forty shillings, and to act in all other 
I matters as any other Assistant may doe, as the Lawes of this 
I Colony direct." 
j Du Tuffeau was from Poitiers, the principal town in the 

province of Poitou. 

"When in Oxford he was married to Demoiselle Eochefou- 

cauld, a lady descended from one of the most noble families in 

France. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Fkench Gardens. 

There are French gardens, vineyards and orchards of which 
we have descriptions that carry us far back to those days of the 
Huguenots leav^ing France. 

"The Huguenots were acknowledged to be the best agricul- 
turists, wine growers, merchants and manufacturers in France. 

medicine and surgery, and about the year 1716 settled in Fairfield 
county, Connecticut, as a physician, occasionally assisting the Church of 
England missionary ; he married Jeanne de Ressignier, in a second mar- 
riage Abigail Blacklach, August 29, 1716, and died about 1731, leaving 
two sons, James and John, both of whom became physicians. 
Note, — Beruon resided in Boston. 



French Gardens. 



197 



No heavier crops were grown in France than on the Huguenot 
farms in Beam, and the south-western provinces. The slopes 
of the Aigonl and the Epernon were covered with their flocks 
and herds. The valley of the Vaunage was celebrated for its 
richness of vegetation, and was called by its inhabitants the 
'Little Canaan.' ^5- * * -pi^^ diligence, skill and labor 
with which they subdued the stubborn soil and made it yield 
its increase of flowers and fruits, and corn and wine, bore wit- 
ness in all quarters to the toil and energy of the men of the 
religion," — Smiles'' History of the Huguenots. 

Disosway in his " Pluguenots in America," states : " The differ- 
ent parts of the countiy to which they came were greatly bene- 
fited by the introduction of their superior modes of cultivation 
of the soil, and of different valuable fruits which they brought 
from- France. * * * When Charles II, in 1680, sent the 
first band of French Protestants to South Carolina his principal 
object was to introduce into that colony the excellent modes of 
cultivation which they had followed in their own countrv." 

In 1709 Lawson in his " Journal " gives us pictures of the 
Huguenots in their scattered settlements in South Carolina, and 
states " their lands presented the aspects of the most cultivated 
portions of France and England." 

Tradition states that the plantations of the French hahitans 
of New Oxford were cultivated with such care and taste that 
the whole settlement presented to view one beautiful garden. 
There is found at the ruins of the French fort in Oxford, 
which was once the plantation of Andre Sigournais, in the 
French settlement of 1687, remains of a vineyard, orchard and 
gardeu.* 

* The following fact was communicated to the writer of the Memoir 
of the French Protestants, Rev. Dr. Holmes, by the late Capt. Andrew 
Sigourney, of Oxford, Mass., who was born in Boston 1752: 

" A bill of lading, dated London, March 5, 1687, of a variety of Mer- 
chandise, etc., shipped ou boaVd the ships John and Elizabeth^ mentions 



198 The Records of Oxford. 

On a second visit to the fort, in September of the same year 
(1819), we " were regaled with the perfumes of the shrubbery, 
and the grapes there hanging in clusters on the vines, planted 
by the Huguenots above a century before." 

" Grape vines, in 1819, were growing luxuriantly along the 
line of the fort ; and these, together with currant bushes, 
roses, and other shrubbery nearly formed a hedge around it. 
There were some remains of an apple orchard. The currant 
and asparagus were still growing there. These, with the 
peach, were of spontaneous growth from the French plantation ; 
the last of the peach trees was destroyed by the memorable 
gale of 1815," as stated by Mr. Mayo, the landed proprietor. 

Mrs. Lee, the author of the " Huguenots in France and Amer- 
ica " writes of the French garden of Andrew Sigourney : 

"The narrative of Mr. John Mayo (given to her in 1828, 
when he was eighty-one years of age) is perhaps the most 
graphic. He says the fort of the French was near my house ; 
it inclosed about a quarter of an acre and was about square. 
There was a very considerable house, with a cellar, well, etc., 
within the fort. There was a garden outside the fort, on the 
west, containing asparagus, grapes, plums, cherries, and a bed 
of gooseberries. There were probably more than ten acres 
cultivated around the fort ; some of the apple trees and pear 
trees are still standing, also the currant bushes and cinnamon 
rose bushes, asparagus, etc." 

among the rest, ' two chests of vine plants, marked X 5 X,' and were 
to be delivered to Mr. Daniel Stading, or Petre a Sailes " (of Boston for 
the French settlement of New Oxford). 

The bill of ship lading was on a half sheet of paper, large size, of a 
thick course quality of paper and much discolored by time. It was 
folded in a small square form. 

Some years since, on the decease of Capt. Andrew Sigourney, of Oxford, 
his executor, Capt. William Sigourney, found the ship lading bill of these 
same vines and fruit trees. The bill was afterward destroyed, with 
other French papers, by fire. 



Letter of L. //. Sigoiivjiey. 199 

A portion of the garden was devoted to herbs, roots, medici- 
nal sweet mint, and remnants still remained of blood root, Sol- 
man's seal and some others. 

Yery little remains at the present time of this once lovely 
French flower garden, vineyard and orchard (having passed into 
the hands of the restorer) — a remnant of the cherry trees which 
had replanted themselves, the fruit retaining its rich flavor, bnt 
in size resembling the wild cherry. These cherry trees formed 
a lovely trellis for the grape vines, but unfortunately they were 
destroyed ; with these vines clusters of asparagus, stray hop 
vines and rose trees, had formed a French garden and viueyard 
for two centuries. 

Mr. Mayo stated to Dr. Holmes : " Every thing here is left 
as I found it." 

The descendants of Mr. Mayo shared in his refinement of 
taste. 

" The flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion 
of it perisheth." 

A Letter from the Late Mrs. L. H. Sigournet. 

Hartford, Sept. 30^A, 1856. 
My Dear Miss De Witt : 

On returning from a little visit to my daughter I found 
your box of delightful Huguenot grapes awaiting me. Their 
frao-rance betrayed them ere the casket was fully opened. 
This sentiment of remembrance on your part was indeed 
very kind, and I earnestly thank you. Does it require much 
stretch of the imagination to depict that saintly group who, 
for "righteousness sake," left the vine-clad hills of la belie 
France, and sought among these shaded valleys, " a faith's pure 
shrine ? " 

Your own ruined fort is peculiarly rich and graphic in its de- 
lineations, especially so to us, who regard the ancestral name of 
Sigourney with respect and affection. 



200 The Records of Oxford. 

1 hope this Hiignenot vine may long flourish ; I have pressed 
some of its dusters into a little wine, thinking that the most 
enduring form in which thej could be treasured. Should it 
succeed well, I shall hope you will taste it with me, when it 
attains its maturity, the next year. 

I trust your loved mother and sister are well. I often think 
of you as a peculiarly happy family not to have been severed 
and tossed about, as so often happens " amid the chances and 
changes of this mortal life." Please remember me affectionately 
to them, and believe me, 

Yery sincerely your friend, 

L. H. SiGOUKNET. 

An Extract from a Letter of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes 

TO Mrs. Freeland, Dated Beverly Farm, June, 1881. 

" I remember ray father's visit to Oxford, and the enthusiasm 
with which he explored the traces of the French Pilgrims. I 
have not forgotten, either, my own visit many years ago to the 
fort and the scenes of the massacre by the Indians, and how I 
looked for the rose bushes and the grape vines which my father 
had seen, and of which Mrs. Sigourney had sung. There is no 
town in New England which can show more interesting localities 
than Oxford. The French exiles rested there, as a flight of 
tropical birds might alight on one of our New England pines, 
and one can hardly visit the places that knew them without 
looking for some relics of tlieir sojourn as he would hunt for an 
empty nest or a painted feather after the bird has flown." 

Rev. Dr. Abel Holmes states : 

" In the year 1822 a letter was also received from a lady, 
well known in our literary community, enclosing a poetical 
tribute to the memory of the Huguenots of Oxford, which is 
not less worthy of her pen, than of her connexion.* Her mar- 
riage with a worthy descendant of one of the first French fami- 



* L. Huntly Sigourney. 



French Gardens. 201 

lies that settled in Oxford fairly entitled her to the subject 
which her pen will perpetuate, should the Memoir be forgot- 
ten. A leaf of the grape vine was enclosed in the letter which 
has this conclusion : ' We received great pleasure from our 
visit to Oxford, and as we traced the ruins of the first rude 
fortress erected bj our ancestors, the present seemed almost to 
yield in reality to the past. I send you a leaf from the vine, 
which still flourishes in luxuriance, which, I am sorry to say, 
resembles our own natives of the woods a little too strongly. 
Something beside, I also send you, which savours as httle of the 
Muse's inspiration, as the vine in question does of foreign ex- 
traction ; but if poetical license can find afiinities for the latter, 
I trust your goodness will extend its mantle over the infirmity 
of the former. ' " 

An Extract from the Poem of L. H. Sigoukney, Received 
BY Eev. Dr. Holmes. 
" The savage arrow scath'd them, and dark clouds 
Involved their infant Zion, yet they bore 
Toil and affliction with unwavering eye 
Fix'd on the heavens, and firm in hope sublime 
Sank to their last repose. Full many a son 
Among the noblest of our land, looks back 
Through Time's long vista, and exulting claims, 
These as his Sires."— L. H. S. 

Mrs. Lee writes: "The Huguenots, after their return to 
Boston (from Oxford), gratified their taste in the cultivation- of 
rare and beautiful fruits and flowers. Vesticres lone- remained 
of their cultivated and refined tastes," And adds, " A friend 
of mine, now no more, the honored and regretted Daniel Sar- 
gent, Esq., told me, he perfectly recollected ' fine gardens 
pointed out to him when a boy, as having belonged to the 
Huguenots.' " — Mrs. Lee, ii, 68. 

There were the rich and luxurious French gardens of Daniel 
Johonnot of Boston, and of his son Zachariah Johonnot, rival- 
26 



202 The Records of Oxford. 

ing gardens of India in splendor, wliich wei e cultivated through 
their wealth to remind them in sweet memories of the lovely 
homes of their ancestors in sunny France. 

The beautiful garden of Daniel Johonnot was by his "will" 
bequeathed to his son Andrew as a choice inheritance, and 
again by him bequeathed to his son Andrew. 

These gardens were ornamented with flowers and shrubs of 
exquisite varieties and choice fruit trees, and were for many 
years remembered by the inhabitants of Boston. 

And the gardens of Zachariah Johonnet were afterward in- 
herited by his son Peter. These gardens are said to have been 
filled with rare fruit trees, beautiful flowers and shrubs from the 
"dear fatherland." Tradition states that every tree, shrub and 
flower came from France, and that these gardens extended in 
length entire streets. 

There was also the spacious garden appurtenant to the rich 
mansion of Andrew Faneuil*in Boston ; he had acquired a taste 
for flowers which he gratified in one immense French garden, 
containing seven acres of land, interspersed with choice fruit 
trees. The garden was of such loveliness that it was styled an 
"Eden of beauty." Choice tropical fruits were cultivated in 
hot-houses, the first of their kind in Kew England. 

" The deep court-yard," says Miss Quincy, in her memoir of 
her mother, " ornamented by flowers and shrubs, was divided 
into an upper and lower platform by a high glacis, surrounded 
by a richly wrought railing, decorated with gilt balls." f 

The terraces, which rose from the paved court behind the 
house, were supported by massive walls of hewn granite, and 
were ascended by flights of steps of the same material. 



* The residence of Andrew Faneuil was on Treamount St. (Tremont 
St.), opposite the King's chapel and its church-yard. On the death of 
Andrew Faneuil, it became the home of his nephew, Peter Faneuil 
where he lived and died. 

t Memoir of the Life of Eliza S. M. Quincy, p. 88. 



French Gardens. 203 

One of the ornaments of this tasteful garden was a snmraer- 
honse which resembled an eastern pagoda, and from the little 
spire which surmounted it, there glittered and whirled about 
in olden times a gilded grasshopper, for a vane in imitation of 
the one upon the Royal Exchange in London. This summer- 
house from its elevated situation commanded a lovely view, 
and for many successive decades of years the Johonnet and 
Faneuil gardens were remembered for their choice fruits and 
flowers as things of aesthetic beauty. 

At the commencement of the sixteenth century, there lived 
in a small castle near Gap, in Dauphiny, the noble family of 
j^areh — History of France, M. Guizot. 

Among the French gardens, vineyards and orchards there is 
a description of an orchard at the ancient home of Wilham 
Farel in France, which d'Aubigne has so quaintly and beauti- 
fully described : 

" In these Alpine solitudes, three leagues from the town of Gap, 
in the direction of Grenoble, not far from the flowery turf that 
clothes the tableland of Bayard's mountain, on the extended 
plain, stood a house of the class to which in France the appellation 
of ' gentilhommiere ' * is attached (a country gentleman's habi- 
tation). It was surrounded by an orchard which formed an 
avenue to the village — there lived a family bearing the name 
of Farel, a family of long-established reputation, and as it would 
appear, of noble descent. In the year 1489, at a time when 
Dauphiny was suffering from oppression, a son was born in this 
modest mansion, who received the name of William Farel." f 

* Some of the Huguenots were termed " gentilhomme " (gentlemen). 
• In old France " gentilhomme " meant much more than "noble;" a 
man's ancestors must have been noble for at least three generations, else 
he dared not assume that envied designation of which the King himself 
was proud, considering it amongst his highest honors to be called "pre- 
mier gentilhomme de France (the first gentleman of France). 

t John Calvin, in writing of William Farel, dwells upon tlie disinter- 
estedness of his character, and speaks of him as a man of such noble birth. 



204 The Records of Oxford. 

" Grenoble to Gap, distant a quarter of an hour's journey 
from tlie last post-house, and a stone's throw to tlie right from 
the high road, is the site of the house which belonged to the 
fatlier of the Farel still pointed out. Though it is now occu- 
pied by a cottage only, its dimensions are sufhcient to prove 
that the original structure must have been a dwelling of a su- 
perior order. The present inhabitant of the cottage bears the 
name of Farel." 



A description of the modern French garden of the late 
Charles Sigouroiey, Esq., of Hartford, Ct., who was a lineal 
descendant of Andrew Sigourney, who came from France, 
and was in the French settlement of Oxford, and afterward 
hecarne a resident of Boston. 

Mrs. Sigourney describes her beautiful home with its lovely 
rose gardens : 

"The mansion was environed by an extensive lawn, whose 
curving gravel walks were adorned with shrubbery, and spacious 
gardens, one of which stretched downward to the fair river that 
girdled the domain, from which it was protected by a mural 
parapet. One of the most unique features of scenery was a 
grove sloping rather precipitously to the borders of the same 
graceful stream, traversed by winding paths, and shaded by 
lofty trees. On its margin, and partially sustained by the trunk 
of a strong oak that bent over the water, a rustic recess with two 
or three seats, called the Hermitage, had been constructed. It 
was approached by a kind of wildei-ness path through the lawn 
grounds (where every thing grew as it pleased, yet pleased to 
grow gracefully), * ^ * ^j^ adjoining eminence was 
crowned by a summer-house, on whose vane, which was in the 
form of an arm and hand with a })ointing tinger, was the classic 
inscription, ' Ut ventus vita,' — our life is as the wind, our do- 
main was beloved by the flowers. 



FrencJi Gardens. 205 

" Roses of every hue and variety cast theirperfume upon the 
air ; the clematis threw over the piazzas its rich masses of ce- 
rulean bine ; brilliant woodbines and trumpet honeysuckles 
spanned the arching gate- ways, or clung to the trellises of the 
summer-house ; the alternate white and purple lilacs bowed their 
heads over the avenue alloted to them, as if in close consulta- 
tion ; the neighboring lilacs bent back their listening petals ; 
on the border of the gravel walks tlie gorgeous coxcomb 
flaunted, the peony and lupine advanced their pretensions ; the 
pansy lifted its deep eye of intelligence, and the arbor-judea 
waved its pendulous banner when the slightest zephyr claimed 
homage. 

" (Birds, fearing no shaft of the fowler, peopled the boughs, 
and made a paradise of song.) (A. line of foot-bridges with 
their passing groups, rendered picturesque its adjacent lowlands, 
where were groups of little ones, who amassed daisies and king- 
cups, or gadded after the bright-winged butterfly.) Garden 
seats were placed in different positions, so as admirably to re- 
veal the charms of nature and art which were here combined, 
the velvet lawn, the stream that at one point exhibited a slight 
cascade, and at another seemed to have a lake-like termination. 
The trees which were scattered here and there seemed instinct 
with the spirit of grace ; and methought I had never beheld 
such enchanting moonlights as fell through their chequering 
branches." 

Fain would I bear away, 
And keep the changeless picture in my heart 
Of those fair woods and waters, — summer dress'd 
And angel-voiced, until I lay me down 
On the low pillow of my last repose. — L. H. Sigourney. 

On leaving the village street in Oxford in a southerly direc- 
tion to visit the site of the ancient French gardens and ruins 
of the fortification, you will take the first road on your left 
hand ; it is now known by a guide-board as "Huguenot avenue." 



2o6 TJie Records of Oxford. 

" A high way laid out Feb. 6th 1714* by the Select men 
beginning att the Eiglit rod way on the southwardly sid of an 
orchard neer the old millf running over the old mill brook to a 
rock on the East of said Brooke, from thence marked on 
the northwardly side with mark trees tel it corns to barnon's:}: 
land neer the North East corner of Joseph Charaberlin seneor's 
home lot (In the French settlement the home lot of Rev. Daniel 
Bondet) said way being four rods wide." 

Soon a view is presented of the site of the French fort, situ- 

* Village Rec, p. 132. 

t French Mill of Gabriel Bernon. 

\ Gabriel Bernon's land. 

There was once a large orchard planted by the Huguenots on the 
north-west corner of the way four rods wide as it entered the Eight rod 
way, and within the present century the remains of another orchard of 
apple trees was to be seen, and it is said vestiges of these old trees are 
now to be found on the late Capt. Humphrey estate. The rock over the 
brook remains the same partly concealed under the bridge, and a modern 
mill is now seen on the site of one of the old Frencli mills of Gabriel 
Bernon. The ancient site of the Humplirey house is passed on your left 
hand, shaded by its ancient elms and a memorable oak. The descendants 
of Capt. Humphrey continue still in the possession of this ancient estate. 
There was the old path or road leading to the French church-yard enter- 
ing at the oak tree in the lowlands, and now, if the traveler should inquire 
his way, he is told by some obliging countryman "to rise a holler, keep 
straight along until you reach the top of a hill,'' and he pursues the wind- 
ing highway. 

He soon passes on the left hand an eminence, the site of the ancient 
French church and church-yard. The valley below the church, shaded 
by dark plumy pines, and the site of the lower fort (as it was called), built 
to protect the French refugees during church service and the burial of 
their dead, and then is passed on tlie left the opening of the old Boston 
road, as it was called two hundred years ago the "Kenecticut road,'' and 
then on the Woodstock trail he passes on his right hand the site of the 
Rev. Daniel Bondet's plantation and its high round top hill, known at the 
present day as " Bondet's hill," and soon on his left hand he pursues 
his way on a slope of the Frencii orchard of some five acres of land, once 
belonging to Andrew Sigourney as a part of his plantation. 



French Fort. 207 

ated pleasantly in a close of ten acres of cultivated land crown- 
ing the height of the plantation. There was once a vineyard 
on the south side of the fortification, the grape-vines of which 
caressed the rude palisade, and supplied wine to the refugees 
(it is said the French have wonderful proclivities for the grape 
vine). The ho]) vine and the rose tree had their share of cul- 
ture in the garden on the west side of the fort, and thus the 
fort appeared to rise from this garden of roses and vines. 

Within the site of the French fortifications there is still to 
be discovered the outline of the small cellar of the garrison- 
house. On the south side of the palisade was the vineyard ; 
outside of the fort, on the north side of the garrison-house, 
there was a stone chimney, and its uncouth wide fire-place, a 
part of which is still standing, and the ancient well is still pre- 
served. There are now to be seen the ancient stone steps 
ascending a terrace from the garden, leading to the house on 
its north-westerly limits, just as they were in position when 
the settlement was abandoned, not having the misfortune to 
have passed into the hands of the restorer. At the base of the 
terrace, west of the fort, was the garden, and the orchard lying 
westerly of the garden. 

" The main block house was thirty feet long and eighteen 
feet wide, with a doubled wall cellar twenty-four feet long by 
twelve feet wide and about six feet deep. The inner wall 
supported the floor beams ; the outer wall, three feet from 
this, was made of heavy boulders on a foundation about three 
feet deep, and supported the logs forming the walls of the 
house." 

A covered stone drain seventy feet in length, constructed 
when the fort was built, is still to be seen in good preservation. 

" At the south-west corner of the cellar a flight of stone 
steps have been unearthed, which led to the cellar of this block- 
house. On clearing out the debris and rubbish at this point, 
three or four of the original benches, or offsets, cut in the hard 



2o8 The Records of Oxford. 

earth, for laying the steps when the cellar was built, were found 
as distinct as if just made." 

The fireplace was in the middle of the north side of the house. 
It was nearly ten feet wide at tlie opening of the jambs, and 
admitting logs eight feet long at the back. 

The broad foundations (one hundred square feet) supporting 
it and its cliimney, almost wholly outside of the house, gave 
ample room for those huge logs and for an outside oven. 

There was but this one fireplace to this old garrison-house. 
There was no annex attached to this block-house of any de- 
scription. Mr. John Mayo remembered the garrison-house, 
as his ancestors had purchased this estate of M. Gabriel Bernon. 

Mr. John Mayo, in his description of the French garrison- 
house (as he well remembered it in good preservation when 
his father resided on the French plantation), informed Mrs. J. 
P. Davis, his granddaughter, that the port-holes were only on the 
south side of the house, as there was lying southerly of the 
garrison-house at some little distance a line of forest running 
easterly and westerly, forming as it were a boundary, and from 
this point the French must have feared an invasion of the 
Indians. 

The Oxford Fort. 
Notes on its G07ist7ncctio)i, etc. 

The French plantations of Rev. Daniel Boudet and Andre 
Sigournay were not included in the large tract of land pur- 
chased by Gabriel Bernon of Dudley and others. The French 
made a first settlement in (New) Oxford in 1687. A garrison - 
house was erected on the plantation of Sigournay, and he was 
the Commandant of the fort. He planted a vineyard, orchard, 
and cultivated a garden of much beauty, composed of shrubs 
and i"ose trees which he obtained from France. This garrison- 
house remained until after the English settlement in 1713. 
The site of its ancient cellar is still to be seen, with its immense 
stone chimney foundations and fireplace, with the remains of that 



French Fort. 209 

once lovely vineyard, orchard and garden, and these were the 
only relics to be seen on the site of the French fort in 1884* 
This fortified garrison-honse was surrounded only by a palisade of 
logs and earthworks. It is conjectured by some that " the fort 
was built of stone, the walls some four feet high, banked with 
earth and topped with logs, and having a ditch surrounding it, 
with perhaps a stockade beyond," and tliat certain outhnes of 
the fort are indicated " by the solid stone foundations, three 
feet in thickness and just covered by the sod enclosing the 
whole area." There is no record or reliable tradition to sup- 
port these theories. 

The only explanation that can be given of this view of these 
fortifications is the following : The large area of land now sur- 
rounding the site of the French fort was in ancient times com- 
posed of several small lots of land. One of these parcels, lying 
south of the ruins of the fort, was separated by a wall of stone 
running east and west near the vineyard, which was outside of 
the fort. This was rebuilt several times by the Mayo family 
during the 130 years of their residence on the farm, and 
every time removed three or more feet south of the old wall; 
and besides, this wall intersected another wall at right angles, 
running south and north, which extended from the highway 
boundary wall. "What is now thought to be the site of an old 
ditch surrounding the fort is only the aj^pearance of the ground 
from whence was removed one of these former walls. The 
last of these old walls was removed some 50 years since. 

All the debris of these old walls was deposited in the French 
vineyard, under the vines and among the shrubs and rose trees 
of the French garden. This accounts for the supposed fortifi- 
cation wall of " some three feet in thickness and just covered by 
the sod." When this supposed discovery was made there was 
no vestige of a wall standing. The wall now placed is a 
modern wall just erected in imitation of what was in imagina- 
tion supposed to be the original wall of defense. 
27 



2IO The Records of Oxford. 

It also appears that there were no stone walls three feet in 
thickness around the "French garrison-house" as a defense 
against the natives, the first French settlement having been 
abandoned in August, 1696, and a second French settlement 
made in Oxford in about 1699, and continued until 1704, only 
17 years after the first fort was erected. 

Gabriel Bernon, the President of the " French habitants," peti- 
tioned Governor Dudley for protection against the natives. Gov- 
ernor Dud]ey,in reply to his petition,dated July 7,1702, writes : — 

" Herewith you have a commission for Captain of New 
Oxford. I desire you forthwith to repair thither and show 
your said commission, and take care that the people be armed, 
and take them in your own house with a palisade, for the secur- 
ity of the inhabitants ; and if they are at such a distance in 
your village that there should be need of another place to draw 
them together in case of danger, consider of another proper 
house, and write me, and yoa shall have order therein. 

" I am your humble servant, 

"J. Dudley." 

In Lincoln's " History of Worcester " is found the description 
of a garrison-house of this period, 1675-1713, in Worcester: — 

" On this road (Marlborough to Brookfield) south of the 
fording place, was erected at a very early period, one of those 
edifices called block or garrison-houses, and denominated on the 
records ' the old Indian fort.' 

" The structure for defense against the tribes prowling in 
the forests, so far as specimens have survived the waste of time, 
or description been preserved by tradition, had great uniform- 
ity in construction. They were built of timbers, hewn on 
the sides in contact with each other, firmly interlocked at 
the ends, and fastened together with strong pins. They 
were generally square and two stories in height. The 
basement was furnished with a single thick door of plank. 
The walls were perforated with narrow loop-holes for the use of 



French Fort. 2 1 1 

musketry against an approacliing foe. A ladder, easily drawn 
up if the lower floor was forced, ascended to the next room, 
which projected two or three feet over on each side, having 
slits for infantry, and wider port-holes for cannon. The gentle 
slope of the roof afforded an elevated position to overlook the 
surrounding country, and was sometimes crowned with a little 
turret for an observatory. These watch-towers, impervious to 
ball or arrow, were of abundant strength to resist an enemy un- 
provided with artillery, and might defy any attack except that 
by fire on the combustible materials. To these wooden castles, 
in the infancy of the country, the inhabitants repaired on the 
alarm of danger, and found ample protection within the rude 
fortresses, seldom reduced by the savage, of too tierce tem- 
perament to await the lingering progress of a siege. Lincoln 
mentions " another of these fortresses of logs " for the protec- 
tion of Quinsigomond (Worcester), and then " The third of 
these wooden castles was on the new Connecticut road north 
of Lincoln Square, affording shelter to the traveller and de- 
fending the mills on the stream." 

In the " Memorial History of Boston ■ ' is a description of the 
fortification of Charlestown, " which was begun as early as 
1630, when a fort was built on the top of Town Hill, with pali- 
sadoes and flankers made out, which was performed at the 
direction of Mr. Graves by all hands, men, women and chil- 
dren, who wrought at digging and building till the house was 
done. The fort was maintained at great expense, and was fos- 
tered by the colony because of its importance." The works 
were abandoned just previous to 1700. 

The fortifications are described in New York city as existing 
in 1700 or about that time. " The city lies crowded below Wall 
Street with only a path stretched out along Chatham Street and 
the east side. A line of crumbling palisades and earthworks 
extending originally from river to river, still fenced Wall Street 
from the open beyond." 



212 T]ie Records of Oxford. 

Dr. Holmes visited Oxford in 181T and Lad an interview 
with Mrs. Mary Sigonrney Butler, who lived in Boston until 
the American Revolution and soon after removed to Oxford. 
Dr. Holmes states " of the memorials of the primitive plan- 
tation of her ancestors she had been very observant, and still 
cherished a reverence for them." Mr. John Mayo, who re- 
sided at this time on the plantation of her ancestor, Andrew 
/ Sigourney, Captain Humphrey, Mr._ Peter_ Shumway, who 
■ was of French extraction, Mrs. Kingsbury* and her son. Col. 
j Jeremiah Kingsbury, had rendered Mrs. Butler every assist- 
^' ance in her researches. They were all persons of great in- 
telligence and respectability, and were living on the landed es- 
tates of their ancestors adjacent to the French fort, and all 
lived to be more than 90 years of age, with the exception of 
Col. Kingsbury, who was more than 80 years of age. These 
persons had never seen any stone fortifications around the 
French fort, in the English settlement of 1713. 

In 1720 Thomas Mayo of Roxbury purchased the plantation 
on which was the French fort. This estate continued in the 
Mayo family for some 130 years. If there had been stone forti- 
fications or walls four feet in height and three feet in thickness 
around the fort, would there not have been some remains ? In 
1819 Mr. Mayo informed Dr. Holmes : " Every thing here is 
left as I found it." 

Notes. 

A new modern cellar wall has been laid in imitation of the 
ancient cellar wall,f which quite destroys its interest as a relic 



* The widow of Capt. Jeremiah Kingsbury. 

tMrs. J. P. Davis of Worcester, a lineal descendant of Mr. John Mayo, 
recollects the old walls which stood on the southerly side of the ruins of 
the French fort. In 1884 the remains of the two walls were to be seen, 
which formed a salient angle. These walls had been built in the English 
settlement in making divisions of land. 



French Fort. 213 

of the past. Its ancient outline was all that was desirable to 
preserve, with its foundation of an ancient stone chimney and 
fire-place. 

The safety of the garrison-house would not have permitted 
an ell attached to the house. The house may have extended 
beyond the cellar wall. 

There was hut one chimney attached to this garrison-house, 
and that was built outside of the house on its north side. 
There was but one chimney to houses of that period, and 
to some modern houses of only 100 years ago one chimney of 
huge dimensions was deemed sufficient. There were no ovens ; 
all was done in kettles or in the ashes, excepting a stone 
oven, in the chimney outside of the house. 

Some few relics have been found, of which there is no proof of 
their ever belonging to the French, as the cellar was used by the 
Mayo family for the place of all refuse for more than 100 years. 

There could not have been any old pottery belonging to the 
French. They confined themselves to utensils made of pewter 
and wooden ware, excepting some few who had brought from 
France small articles of silver plate. Andre Sigournay is said 
to have brought from France a small silver pitcher concealed 
with other valuables on his person, which was of great service 
to his family in their flight. The pitcher is now in the posses- 
sion of Charles Sigourney Burnham of New York, a grandson 
of the late Charles Sigourney of Plartford, Conn. 

Then still descending into the valley a tiny river is seen dis- 
appearing altogether from view, then reappearing, yet flowing 
ceaselessly, with trees skirting its bank, in all their varied shades 
of color. The river, fringed with tall grass and meadow flowers 
of blue gentian and the clematis with its fluffy blossoms, with 
graceful bends loses itself in the rich river meadow lands, and 
flows into the French river. This river had strength sufficient to 
turn the wheels of the French mills, and could be heard as it 
tumbled into the mill-race. 



214 T^^^^ Records of Oxford. 

On its banks were the mills and rnstic French dwellings, 
with casement windows aglow with brilliant blossoms, encircled 
with orchards, vineyards and parterres of flowers dotting the 
whole valley, which must altogether have presented a most ro- 
mantic landscape of loveliness, stretching far into the valley, 
through which passed the rnde bridle-paths and foot-trail which 
led the refugees to the mills, church, church-yard, and other 
French plantations in the valley. 

The remains of the ancient bridle-path can be traced on the 
Harwood farm, so called, to the fort, and extending to the site 
of the French church and church-yard. 

On the right hand of the Sutton road, one mile distant from 
the village street, is the site of one of the French mills of 
Gabriel Bernon. 

" In the midst of a small meadow which is skirted by wooded 
uplands, and in midsummer is so overhung and shut in by trees 
and wild undergrowth as to be hidden from the casual observer. 
Here the substantial dam, some sixty feet in length, both wall 
and embankment, stands almost entire — a deep trench to con- 
vey the water from the pond to the mill-wheel, a distance of 
seventy-five feet, is distinctly to be seen — the position of the 
mill can be fixed — and the waste-way, running from the wheel 
abont one hundred feet to the stream below, seems to have 
been but recently made, so little has it been obstructed. 

" In this retired spot, the kindly hand of nature has protected 
and preserved the handiwork of the Huguenots, as it has been 
kept in no other locality in Oxford. The place is full of in- 
terest to the antiquary, and is well worth a visit, not only for 
its associations, but for its quiet, picturesque beauty." 

The views from the French fort present quiet pastoral scenes 
of exquisite loveliness, environed in the distance by enchanting 
forest hills; and from the hill sides there is a long extent of 
beautiful vista, and beyond are distant hills, with Wachusett 
mountain seen fading away in a fainter blue. 



The A finals of Oxford. 2 1 5 

The river winding its silvery way, and its flowery meadows 
remain the same in view as in the days gone by, and the ripple 
and rush of the water-way is now the only sound in this en- 
chanting valley, for the " old French mills " have long since 
fallen to decay. 

There is seen the same hazy distance of mountain landscape 
gilded with the same bright sunshine as when the refugees 
gazed upon this new wilderness home. " But as generations 
of men come and go these old ruins look down on many changes." 

To-day there is seen in the distance the village street with its 
churches, rising among them the tower of the Episcopal church, 
very different in its architecture from the rude French chapel 
of two hundred years ago, where preached the Rev. Daniel 
Bondet, ordained at FuUam palace by Bishop Compton of Lon- 
don. 



CHAPTER XYII. 

The Annals of Oxford. 

In 1713 at the close of Queen Anne's war was the settlement 
of English families commenced in Oxford, the required number 
of thirty families being obtained. The settlement was made in 
the good old colony time, Avhen we lived under the queen 
" when queues were long and patches large." 

Richard Moore, Esq., Lieut. John Town and Col. Ebenezer 
Learned were gentlemen, then good servants to the queen, and 
were enhancing her most gracious Majesty's interests by endeav- 
oring to increase her government by the settlement of Oxford. 

"Oxford was made a town May 16, 1683. In the year 
1693 a particular act passed empowering Oxford to send a 
representative to the ' General Court ' as appears by the records 
in the Secretary's office of this Commonwealth."* 

* Whitney's History of Worcester County, Alass. 



2 1 6 The Records of Oxford. 

In 1694 an assessment of taxes was made and sent with an 
order for its collection, to the constable of the French planta- 
tion, Andrew Sigournej. The grant for Oxford was made 
1681-2. 

Mr. John Gore of Koxbury made the survey, and a return of 
the same being presented to the " General Court," it was ac- 
cepted, and on May 16, 1683, they granted the plantation and it 
received the name of Oxford, after a city of that name in Eng- 
land, and was at that time a town in Suffolk county.* 

The grant for Oxford had a great prospect of success with 
such efficient guardians to watch over its interests as Dudley 
and others of high position in the colony. 

Dudley thought the locality of the Oxford grant "capable of 
a good settlement, with its western part, including many hills, 
and its eastern section was set apart for a village, being more 
attractive because of its plains and meadows.f These plains ex- 

* *' Towns were made when there were few, or no inhabitants in them, 
and when a sufficient number of people had settled in them, a special 
resolve of court passed to empower them to meet and choose their town 
officers." 

"But in a later date they liave been incorporated, named and em- 
powered to hold town meetings by the same act." 

July 31, 1716, Town meeting. 

Richard Moore chosen moderator, voted in y' affirmative yt Lt. John 
Towne and Insn Ebenezer Learned should go to ye Court to search ye 
Records to see what may be found concerning Oxford being granted for 
a Townshiji, also to petition the General Court if we may be made a 
town if it be needful. — Oxford Records. 

May 28, 1718. 

At Great and Gen. Court of Assembly for ye province of ye Massachu- 
setts Bay in New England held at Boston on ye 38 day of May 1718. 

On the petition of John Towne Selectman of the town of Oxford 
June 18, 1718, Read and ordered that a tax may be levied upon the 
lands of non-residents to enable them to build a meeting-house and 
settle a minister. 

t Now the town Charlton. 



The A nnah of Oxford. 2 1 7 

tend three miles north find south, the soil of which is a warm 
sandy loam, and the ISTipmuck country was famed for its Indian 
corn." 

Major Gookin said of Manchang (Oxford), " It is situated in 
a fertile country for good land." 

The natural meadows bordering the rivers which ran on 
either side the plains, were considered the most valuable of all 
the lands, on account of the quantity of hay they yielded.* 

Another attraction presented to the minds of Dudley and 
Stoughton, favorable for a settlement of the Oxford grant, was 
that this location was easy of access. 

The old Bay road from Boston to Springfield crossed this 
part of the Nipmuck county, afterward known as the l^ew Ox- 
ford settlement, in its northern part, and the old Connecticut 
road passed through its southern section. 

"I gave New Roxbury the name of Woodstock, because of 
its nearness to Oxford, for the sake of Queen Elizabeth and 
the notable meetings that have been held at that place bearing 
the name in England."— Diary of Judge Sewall of Boston. 

In the time of the Oxford settlement all varieties of animals 
common to the New England forests were to be found in the 
woodlands of Oxford. Deer, wolves, wild cats and bears were 
game for the hunters, and fish abounded in the small lakes 
and rivers, affording means of subsistence. Deer were numerous 
and were quite an article of traffic. 

* " The artificial pond in the eastern part of Oxford, called ' Robinson's 
pond,' covers what was one of the finest meadows in the vicinity, which 
has been known from the first history of the town as " Mendon meadow," 
as Mendon people came here yearly to cut the hay before the settlement 
of the town . 

"As late as at the commencement of the present century, it was a custom 
every spring, at a certain time, to open the waste-gates at the mill near 
the south end of the plain, and draw the water from the meadows 
above, that the crops of hay might grow and be harvested." 
28 



2 1 8 The Records of Oxford. 

One of the town officers chosen annually was a " deer reeve " 
to protect the deer ; these officers were chosen until near the 
close of the last century.* 

Bears were not uncommon in the settlement of Oxford. 
The last bear in the town was killed by Samuel Davis and 
John Dana. Mr. Davis resided on the farm now owned by James 

Lovett, and the adjoining farm was the residence of Mr. 

Dana. Both of these farms are near to a swamp, long known 
as " Bug swamp." Each of these proprietors had a corn field 
near the swamp, and adjoining to each other. 

Before harvesting, the owners were decided that they were 
suffering in their corn, by the depredations of some bear con- 
cealed in the swamp, which was a most unfrequented place, 
and its solitude and silence had favored the bear to select the 
trunk of some hollow forest tree, as they both climb and de- 
scend trees with great agility, for his den, or in some natural 
cavern among rocks. 

Mr. Davis, and his neighbor Mr. Dana, decided to api)oint a 
morning, at the early hour of 2 o'clock, to meet and watcli for 
the bear. Mr. Dana was first, upon the time appointed, and 
soon sighted the bear, and fired his single-barreled heavy shot- 
gun, which wounded the bear. Dana at once sought his safety 
by refuge in the swamp. The bear came toward him, and 



* In 1793 Capt. Amasa Kingsbury and Joshua Merrian were tlie last 
deer reeves cbosen by the town. 

Among the early punishments found on the court record of Worcester 
county, 1748, one having in his possession the flesh of a deer, killed 
contrary to law, was fined fifty shillings, one-half to the King, and half 
to the informers, which was paid with costs. 

Tradition states at Ballard's grain mill (now Howarth's) that wolves 
were common. On a winter morning seven wolves wei'e counted on the 
ice of Angretteback pond. 

At the farm of Mr. John Larned, west of the river, in the south-west 
part of the town, the family would be awakened many a time by the 
cry of the wolves from the highlands near their home. 



The A finals of Oxford. 2 1 9 

when almost within hugging distance, rose on his haunches to 
throw himself upon Dana, who, perceiving his situation, had 
gathered in his hands and arms mud and decayed roots, which 
he threw into the face of the bear, who stopped very leisurely 
to wipe with his paws the mud from his eyes. Mr. Davis had 
heard the report of Dana's gun, and arrived at this critical 
moment, armed with his shot-gun, and fired upon the bear, 
which now fell dead in a heap before them. 

In the History of the Huguenots in France and America, 
Mrs. Lee, quoting from the manuscript of Mr. John Mayo, of 
Oxford, narrates : 

" I heard Joseph Kockwood, who served in the fort, tell of 
having got lost in the woods when out for the cows. He heard 
at a distance the cries of wild beasts, and ascended a tree for 
safety. He was surrounded during the night by half-famished 
howling wolves.* 

A E.ECOKD OF Teoublesome Birds. 

In a warrant for a town meeting, dated Feb. 19, 1Y91 : 

" 6th. To see if the town will bid a bounty on the heads of 
crows that shall be killed within said town by the inhabitants 
for the year ensuing or act thereon as the town shall think 
proper. By order of the Selectmen. — Samuel Harris, Town 
Clerh. 

" March 7, 1791, at a town meeting; voted, a bounty on the 
heads of crows, viz., for each old crow one shilling a head, and 
for each young crow four pence per head, that shall be killed 
within this town by the inhabitants thereof within one year." 

The keeping of sheep in those days was quite an item of 
profit to the land-holders. All sheep were marked by their 
owners and entered on record in the town. Among many 



* Joseph Rockwood was in the English settlement of Oxford, and his 
plantation was near the French fort, and subsequently was included in 
the farm lands of John Mayo. 



220 The Records of Oxford. 

others : " Kev. Elias Dudley marks his slieep witli a Swallow 
Tail on the right ear." — May 14, 1793. 

" Mr. James Butler's marking stamp for his Beasts is a 
capital ' B ' thus ' B '" (painted black or red^ — January 5 
1795. ' ^ 

In some instances in marking animals humanity was forgotten. 
" Lt. John Ballard Marks his cattle and Slieep with a crop off 
the left Ear and the right Ear split of each creature " — De- 
cemr. 1st 1792. 

Mrs. Kingsbury (the widow of Oapt, Jeremiah Kingsbury) 
narrated, when in her youth and residing with her father Jona- 
than Ballard, whose plantation and corn mill included a part 
of the landed estate of John Nichols, in later time known as 
Howarth : 

The Ballard family, were greatly annoyed by the Indians. 
When gathering peas and other vegetables from their garden 
they w^ere obliged to protect themselves with fire-arms. If in 
any manner they returned to the house leaving the basket, on 
returning to the garden the basket and peas were gone. 

Governor Hutchinson in his history of Massachusetts writes 
an item in the history of Oxford: " August 6, 1724, four In- 
dians came upon a small house in Oxford, which was built 
under a hill. They made a breach in the roof, and as one of them 
was attempting to enter, he received a shot from a courageous 
woman, the only person in the house, who had two muskets 
and two pistols charged, and was prepared for all four, but they 
thought fit to retreat, carrying off the dead or wounded man." 

Tradition states the woman placed a feather-bed in the chim- 
ney and with a fire and the smoke prevented them from enter- 
ing the house. The name of this heroine is not preserved, 
neither the site of her humble dwelling. 

Cattle were often taken from the English settlement by the 
Indians. When looking for cows at pasture fire-arms were re- 
quired. 



The Annals of Oxford. 



221 



Peter Papillon of Boston died in 1733. (John Wolcott of 
Salem his son-in-law Administrator of his estate, Boston Feb. 
ye 11th, 1734). 

The stock of creatures, etc., on the Farm at Oxford amounted 
to £85. 11. 0. as by Inventory lodg'd in ye Registrs. Office and 
which are still on sd Farm to be deducted out of ye first In- 
ventory of £1033. 9. 6^. 

One Mare now at Oxford £12. 0. 0. 

One can imagine the English planters as they arrive from 
various settlements in Oxford village, with their wagons con- 
taining household goods and pack-horses overburdened, with 
their cattle and other domestic animals soon following. 
The pioneers in a new settlement at that period encountered 
many hardships, to build their log cabins, make roads and lay 
rustic bridges over the small rivers, as well as the labor of sub- 
duing the soil. 

The first houses were rude structures, with roofs covered 
with thatch. In a few years houses of a better order began to 
appear; they were built with two stories in front and sloped 
down to one in the rear " leanto style " the windows were 
small and opened outward on hinges; they consisted of very 
small diamond panes of glass. The frames of the houses were 
of heavy oak timber showing the beams inside. These rustic 
homes all had innnense fire-places, where the blazing fire of 
huge back logs gave cheerfahiess to the whole apartment dur- 
ing the long winter evenings, children and servants sitting in 
the chinmey corners, with a high-backed settle on one side for 
older people. 

But for the great blazing fire that was constantly burning in 
the wide chimney, the family room of the farm-house would 
have been gloomy. Then there was the floor so neatly sanded, 
the spinning-wheels and reels were a part of the furniture, 
and to the children of the family an amusement, as the 
spinning on a large wheel made a cheery whirring sound as 



222 The Records of Oxford. 

though making woolen garments were the most dehghtful 
thing possible. 

The young people studied their arithmetic and grammar 
by the dim light of a caudle, and for amusements they played 
"Bhnd-man's buff" and " Come Philander, let us be a march- 
ing, " with many other games but long since forgotten. Then 
there were the harvest parties and the quilting parties enlivened 
with a cup of tea that gave social pleasures.* But all these 
fashions have seen their day " as the family hearth and the 
great iron crane hangs rusty on its hinges and groans rheu- 
matically when wakened from its long slumbers." The cry of 
the chimney-sweep is no longer heard in the village street. f 

The ancient mile stone at " Sigourney's corner " states the 
distance of Oxford from Boston to be fifty-three and one-half 
miles. The village street is a mile and a half in length and 
more than one hundred feet broad, and almost its whole length 
is presented at one view. 

* January 1, 1770. " They are not much esteemed now who will not 
treat high and gossip about. Tea has now become the darling of our 
women. Almost every little tradesman's wife must sit sii^piugtea for an 
hour or more in a morning, and it may be again in the afternoon, if they 
can get it, and nothing will please them to sip it out of but china ware, 
if they can get it. They talk of bestowing thirty or forty shillings upon 
a tea equipage, as they call it. There is the silver spoon, silver tongs 
and many other trinkets I cannot name."— Coffin^s " History of Newbury.''^ 

Tea kettles in ancient times held about a pint. 

tWhittier writes : " A remarkable custom brought from the old 
country, formerly prevailed in the rural districts of New England. On the 
death of a member of the family, the b^es were at once informed of the 
event and their hives dressed in mourning. This ceremonial was supposed 
to be necessary to prevent the swarms from leaving their hives and seek- 
ing a new home." 

This antique fashion is continued in some of the country villages within 
ten miles of Worcester at the present time. It is still regarded as a matter 
of policy to prevent the bees from deserting their hives. 

The old way of telling the bees was for the master or mistress to ap- 



The Annals of Oxford. 223 

The street was silent from noise of carriages in those days ; 
only a few pedestrians were seen on the highway, with now 
and then a person passing on horseback, with occasionally a 
lady seated upon a pillion on tlie same horse. 

The broad highway was lined with flocks of gabbling geese, 
which marched np and down the street in search of mud pools, 
to the terror of all small children, and this fashion continued 
long into the present century. 

proach the hives and rap gently upon them. When the bees ' attention was 
thus secured, say in a low voice that such a person, mentioning the name, 
was dead. 

Another way of telling the bees was for the mistress or some one in 
her place to drape the hives in black, at the same time softly humming 
some mournful tune to herself. 

Telling the Bees — Wlnttier. 

"Just the same as a month before, — 
The house and the trees, 
The barn's brown gable, the vine by the door, — 
Nothing changed but the hives of bees. 

Before them, under the garden wall, 

Forward and back, 
Went drearily singing the chore-girl small. 

Draping each hive with a shred of black. 

Trembling, I listened ; the summer sun 

Had the chill of snow : 
For I knew she was telling the bees of one 

Gone on the journey we all must go ! 

Then I said to myself, ' My Mary weeps 

For the dead to-day : 
Happly her blind old grandsire sleeps 

The fret and the pain of his age away.' 

But her dog whined low; on the doorway sill, 

With his cane to his chin. 
The old man sat ; and the chore-girl still 

Sung to the bees stealing out and in. 



224 TJie Records of Oxford, 

Josiali "Wolcott, Esq., at this time was tlie owner of a pleasure 
carriage (a square top chaise) and also of a one-horse chair, both 
vehicles dating back before 1776. Only a few of the country 
gentry kept a chair or chaise, which was only *' tackled" on 
Sundays, or occasionally for a journey.* 

The present time affords in the town facilities for traveling 
by railroad, a contrast to the former time. 

In 1715, two years subsequently to the English settle- 
ment, Bernon gave the stones and irons of the grist-mill to 
Daniel Elliot on condition a mill should be built in a specified 
time.f 

And the song she was singing ever since 
In my ear sounds on; — 
' Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence ! 
Mistress Mary is dead and gone !'' 

* A copy from a note-book of Josiah Wolcott: 
1776 May 23 Mr. Joshua Turner 

To chaise to Scituate 72 miles at 16 y" mile 5 — 8 
To chais to Worcester 11 miles 16 y* mile 2 



Settled £.8.4.6. 

t [ Oov. Dudley to G. Bernon^ 

RoxBUKY, A2)r. Qth, 1715. 
" Sir : 

"We are now in a way to thrive at Oxford, and I particularly thank 
you for what you have done toward a grist-mill in the village, by giving 
the mill stones to Daniel Elliot, conditionally that the mill should be 
built to serve the town within a prefixed time, which is now past and 
nothing done. I desire you to write to him to go forward immediately, 
so as to finish the mill presently to the satisfaction of the Inhabitants, or 
that you will order the said mill and Irons to be given to such other per- 
son as will go forward in the work, that they may not be starved the 
next winter. 

"I pray you take effectual order in the matter. 

" I am your humble servant, 

" J. Dudley. 
"To Mr. Gabriel Bernon, Narraganset." 



The Annals of Oxford. 225 

In Lis reply, Beruon says Le has " ordered Daniel Elliot to 
finish the crist-mill at Oxford or to let the town have the two 
mills-town, to set the mill in a convenient place," — " it will be 
a great blessing to strive [thrive] after so much distorbance." * 

Co]. Ebenezer Learned of North Oxford built a dam and 
saw-miU on his estate previous to 1728. This mill was run until 
1859 when factories were erected in its place. 

The old grass-grown Charlton road, the northerly boundary 
to the church-yard near the south common, was once the traveled 
way to Ballard's grain mill ; at a later date a lovely highway 
was made to the mill from the south Charlton road, terminating 
in a broad wooded avenue, which passes the site (intersecting 
with the old road) of this ancient mill, and is unequaled by any 
in the town for good taste and rural beauty, and yet all is arranged 
for utility ; even the stone watering trough is a thing of beauty 
and humanity. The winding avenue is bordered by the forest 
trees in all their natural gracefulness, fringing the lake even 
to the water's edge.f 

The late Sterens De Witt and subsequently the late George 
Hodges, Esq., were both much interested in preserving all its 
natural scenery. 

* January 25, 1714, " Voted at a lofel town meten that Danel Elact 
should build a greust mel for the town \x^%y —Oxford. Records. 

"May 20, 1715, at a town meeting It was also voted to choose two per- 
sons to go to Daniel Elliot and discours with him cousarning building 
ye corn mill to see whether he will go on with ye corn mill and accom- 
plish it in a reasonable time. Richard Moore and Benony Twichel were 
chosen for sd work." «-.«-'**~*'--'>««vwj».i,.. 

Eliot built the mill on Eliot Mill brook near tlie crossing of the 
stream and Worcester road, near the Hawes place adjoining the north 
cemetery. 

t March 11, 1754. Voted " to accept of a highway 2 rods wide begin- 

ing at the eight rod liighway (now Main Street) Running west by the 

South side of Dr. Hold en's House running up on the said Holden's line 

to the North West corner of the burying place from thence straio-ht to 

29 



226 The Records of Oxford. 

Mr. Thomas Davis, in 1747, built a grist-mill- on the river 
passing through his estate, where is situated the mill known 
formerly as belonging to Ebenezer D. Rich. The old French 
mill was located near this site on the same landed estate once 
belonging to Gabriel Bernon, the President of the French 
plantation. Mr. Thomas Davis had received this large and valu- 
able estate from his father, Mr. Samuel Davis, of Roxbury, 
Mass., subsequently a resident of Oxford. 

Improvements in the present time include the item of sav- 
ing labor. In the olden time to many of the houses in the first 
settlement of Oxford, would be attached a small shop, with a 
chimney in one corner, where the father and sons would be en- 
gaged in the winter season only in manufactnring shoes, with 
occasionally apprentices. This would form the entire establish- 
ment. 

The last shop that recalls those primitive days was located 
on the late Josiah Russell place. 

A great contrast is now noticeable in modern improvements 
to these isolated little shops of domestic industry. 

Large manufacturing establishments have superseded them, 
controlled by wealthy owners, who not only supply all that is 
required for home consumption but make large exporta- 
tions to foreign markets, thus affording employment to many 
most estimable inhabitants of I^ew England towns and vil- 
lages. 

But finally the carding-machines, the fulling-mills, the 
clothier's shop and the spinning and weaving at the farm-house 
were banished from sight, being superseded by manufactur- 
ing by machinery. The two manufacturing villages west of 
the village street and North Oxford, with its long stretch of 

the foot of the hill by Mr. Manning's fence from thence as will be most 
convenient near or in the road now trod to the bridge by Mr. Ballard's 
above his mill dam." This road and the Qiiaboag lane were the only 
roads to the south part of Charlton and Sturbridge for many years. 



The A nnals of Oxford. 227 

villages on the French river, with the town of Webster, are now 
to be seen in the places of these few solitary mills. 

In Oxford, Charlton and adjacent places in the southern 
part of Worcester county, before banking bad become common, 
Ebenezer Davis, Esq., of Charlton, and his brother. General Jona- 
than Davis, of Oxford, became the private bankers of the people 
who had occasion to secure loans of money. Ebenezer Davis, 
it is said, did not invest in large amounts; he loaned in small sums 
to hundreds of individuals in Charlton and vicinity. Through 
the influence of General Jonathan Davis, of Oxford, the Oxford 
Bank was incorporated in 1823, and for the first ten years he was 
its president. It was changed to a National bank in 1865. He 
was succeeded by Richard Olney, Esq., a gentleman of wealth 
and great influence, from Providence, R. I., John Wetherell, 
Esq., Hon. Alexander De Witt, and in more modern times, 
by Charles A. Angell, Esq., and other distinguished gentle- 
men.* 

Frontino: on the south-east corner of the south common there 
was a little gray school-house, itself " toeing the highway, " with 
its two chimneys, with its capacious hearths for log fires of a win- 
ter's day. The benches were of the rudest style, instruments of 
torture, being very narrow and straight backs. For many years 
this little country school-house, with small high windows of 
diamond glass, graced the corner of the village common, weather 
stained with time, its decayed sills and warped clap-boards 
" crumbled from its moss-flecked sides." 

This first school-house in the town occupied the site of the 
present residence of Mr. Charles Lamb, and for many years re- 



* The late Mr. James Freeland, of Sutton, once engaged in commerce 
with Canada en route for Montreal through the eastern section of New 
York State, ascertained that the entire site of the present city of Utica 
could be purchased on very favorable terms. He communicated with 
Ebenezer Davis, Esq., but failed to interest him in a partnership where 
so large a fortune could have been attained. 



228 The Records of Oxford. 

mained fronting upon the common. Tradition states some of 
its timber is still preserved in the house of Mr. Lamb.* 

"Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way, 
With blossom'd furze, unprofltably gay. 
There in liis noisy mansion, skilled to rule. 
The village master taught his little school. 
A man severe he was and stern to view; 
I knew him well, and every truant knew ; 
Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace 
The day's disasters in his morning face ; 
Full well they laughed with counterfeit glee 
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he ; 
Full well the busy whisper, circling round, 
Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frowned. 

Yet he was kind, or if severe in aught. 
The love he bore to learning was his fault. 
The village all declared how much he knew, 
'Twas certain he could write and cipher too : 
Lauds he could measure, terms and tides presage. 
And e'en the story run — that he could gauge; 
In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill. 
For e'en though vanquished, he could argue still. 
While words of learned length and thund'ring sound, 
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around; 
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, 
That one small head could carry all he knew. 
But past is all his fame. The very spot 
Where many a time he triumphed, is forgot," 

Mr. Tlicbard Rogers was the first teacher of a school in 
Oxford, date 1740. He was the most accomplished teacher of 
his time, not only in English and Latin, but noted for his un- 
rivaled penmanship. In those days a master had no need of a 
pen wiper, for they wiped their pens on the hair under their wigs. 

*The benches and tlie black walnut ferule used in the first schools in 
Oxford were brought to Sutton by tlie widow of Mr. Rogers on her third 
marriage to Isaac Dodge. The relics were to be seen a few years since. 



The Annals of Oxford. 229 

Town meetino; Julj 29, 1714, voted to build a meetiug-house 
thirty feet square, and to set the house on the west side of the 
highway near Twitchell's field. 

This first church was located near the north-west corner of the 
south common, separated from the church-yard by the Charlton 
road, as afterward called, the church fronting on the common. 

The churches in New England at this time exhibited a pe- 
culiar combination of severe plainness. The eastern boundary 
of the church was the Worcester road, at present opening from 
the common; as it appears by records of the town the location 
of the road was anciently. 

" Tradition states in 1748 when a new church was erected 
Col. Ebenezer Learned gave the land and ' commons ' around it 
(now known as the old north common), one and one-half miles 
south from his residence," and one mile north of tlie south 
common. 

The old square church on the north common was built in 
the center of the twelve thousand acres of land comprising the 
township of Oxford at that period in the history of the town. 

" And the church was at the court end of the town," and 
had the appearance of once being colored a dingy yellow brown, 
with three doors in the porch entering on the east and west 
sides, and south front, with corner pews in the gallery for slaves 
and negro servants. 

March 5, 1749, voted to sell the old meeting-house at a ven- 
due to the highest bidder, and Moses Gleason bid £.'6^. 0. 0, and 
it was sold to him accordingly. 

Note.— Sumner Baston (Barston), Esq., a native of Uxbridge, Mass., 
was the first cashier of the Oxford Bank, a gentleman of great natural 
endowments and of much refinement, with most affable manners. He 
had received his education at Brown's University. He became a lawyer 
of distinction and was highly respected in the county as a gentleman of 
integrity and candor. He had received the aiipointmeut of Brigade 
Inspector with tlie rank of Major. He had also been a candidate for 
Representative to Congress. 



230 The Records of Oxford. 

Oct. 14, 1751, voted that the selectmen shall inquire after 
the glass of the old house and give account thereof to the town. 
In 1752 it was again sold with the church land to Dr. Jabez 
Holden.* 

There was a tything-man, whose duty it was to maintain or- 
der during the church service, to drive dogs from the church 
and to watch ov^er the boys and young people. At any mis- 
demeanor the tything-man would give a sharp rap with his 
long black staff and levelled like a musket at any offender. 

This church had a porch bulging out, with its old-fashioned 
square wall pews and squeaking seats turned upon hinges. 
The great feature of this church, especially in the eyes of chil- 
dren, was the huge sounding board above the pulpit, and then 
their fears should it fall upon the minister's head. The body 
of the house was filled with long seats or pews opening from 
the center aisle of the church, with a little shelf-like table on 
hinges at the head of the pew. The pulpit was high and 
narrow. When the clergyman entered the church the people 
remained standing while he ascended the pulpit staircase. 

In the old churches there were no fire-places, and it was be- 
fore the days of stoves, furnaces or steam were nsed for heat- 
ing them. 

The women carried tiny foot stoves, filled with coals from 
their own fire-side ; then between the church services they 
would have leave to replenish them from the friendly hearths 
of their friends near the church or at the village hotel. 

The male members would frequent the hotel or old store 
opposite the common and obtain their "flip " or " gin slings" 
and then return to the church service. 

On Sunday morning, a rude picture is presented, as these 
habitans of the new settlement are seen passing over the com- 
mon to church, some on horseback sino-ly, others double with 

* Some of the timber of this church is still retained as a relic in the 
Town Hall of Oxford. 



The Aimals of Oxford. 231 

saddle and pillion, the wife on the pilhon behind her husband, 
with maybe a little child in her arms, with a small boy on be- 
hind, holding on by the crupper. 

They all dismounted on the horse-block in front of the 
church. 

Quaint old figures toiling up to the church could be dis- 
cerned as far as the eye could reach, by the old cocked hat, or 
manj^-caped great-coat. The ladies had lovely bouquets of pinks, 
with some sweet green mint or roses attached to their persons, 
of a Sunday morning in the summer. During the winter these 
ladies, many of them, were conspicuous from their fine scarlet 
broadcloth cloaks and rich sable muffs. Tlie bearskin muff 
was more common. 

For on a Sunday the people put on their best clothes. As 
wealth increased broadcloth and silk began to take the place of 
home spun. 

The old " meeting-house " and all its surroundings were 
finally sold at auction, the horse-blocks removed, and all lost to 
view excepting the lovely common ; even the ancient elms with 
age have disappeared. A new church was erected in 1829, 
fronting on the South Common. 

From the settlement of the town by the English in 1713 
there was only one church till 1793. The LTniversalist church 
was completed as a place for public service. The society had been 
formed in 1785. In 1836 the Baptist church was erected at 
North Oxford. 

In 1840 the Methodist Episcopal church was erected. In 1843 
it was enlarged by a donation from the late Jonathan Sibley, 
Esq. A new church has subsequently been erected. 

St. Roche Catholic Church is located on Main street opposite 
the South Common ; it commands a fine view. The present 
site was purchased in 1867 of John O'Shea. Since then the 
grounds have been improved and extended by additional valu- 
able land purchased of Mr. Peter Butler, of Quiucy, by Mr. 



232 TJie Records of Oxford. 

Shea, and transferred by him to Rt. Rev. P. T. O'Reilly, 
Bishop of Springfield. 

In 1852 Rev. JSTapoleon Mignaiilt was placed in charge of 
this mission by Rt. Rev. John B. Fitzpatrick, Bishop of Bos- 
ton. Previous to this service was held in private houses ; sub- 
sequently the present church was erected. 

In 1858 Rev. James Qnann was appointed rector by Bishop 
Fitzpatric. The reverend gentleman is a native of British 
America, is of kindly manners and esteemed by all classes in 
society. He remained in charge nntil 1886, when Oxford was 
erected into a parish by Bishop O'Reilly of Springfield, and 
a resident clergyman appointed. 

More recently a beautiful rectory with ornamented gi'ounds 
has been purchased of John E. Kimball, Esq., of Oxford, and 
and is now comprised in the church estate. 

Grace Church (Protestant Episcopal) is beautifully located 
on east side of Main street on the northern portion of the 
Samuel Hagburn estate, one of the plantations in the first set- 
tlement of Oxford. The church rectory is imbedded in its 
cultivated grounds. The corner-stone was laid with ceremonies 
September 20, 1864. It was first occupied October 8, 1865. 
On November 16, following, it was consecrated by Rt. Rev. 
Manton Eastburn, D. D. 

" The whole edifice, externally and internally, is harmonious 
and elegant. It is an architectural ornament such as few 
country villages possess." The building is of dark stone. 

At the time of the settlement of Rev. Mr. Campbell in Ox- 
ford, 1721, all was not luxury and ease. Indians were lurking 
about. The peace of Utrecht was broken in 1722. As late 
as August 21, 1723, in the neighboring towns, clergymen 
carried arms to defend themselves during the church service. 
It is to be regretted that Mr. Campbell did not leave any diary 
Avith allusion to the passing events of this time, and about 
his journey to Boston in 1722, when he went to be married to 



The Anjials of Oxford. 233 

Miss Wheatl J. They came to Oxford witli two saddle horses. 
We can trace the Eev. Mr. and Madame Campbell on their bridal 
route, entertained by the clergymen on whom they called, 
by the journey of Dr. Parkman, of Westborough, in 1723, the 
clergyman of that place. He writes that he rode to West- 
borough from Boston on horseback, leaving Watertown, his first 
watering-place, at half-past twelve, and reaching Westborough 
at dark. 

Eeturing to Boston, after he had secured his invitation, he 
stopped at Hopkinton, where he visited the clergyman and 
fared sumptuously on roast goose, roast pea-hen, baked stuffed 
venison, beef, pork^ etc. 

" After dinner," he adds, " we smoked a pipe and read Gov. 
Shute's memorial to the kinff." 

Town meeting October 7, 1718, there is found a record 
stating, that a messenger was chosen to fetch us ye minister 
Eev. John McKinstry (to accompany him on horseback to Ox- 
ford, as was the fashion of the time), Mr. McKinstry, being in 
Worcester, and a graduate from Edinburgh university. One 
can easily picture the person of Eev. Mr. McKinstry as he 
entered Oxford village ; his countenance is surmounted by the 
large round white wig, with its depth of curls, the three- 
cornered, smartly-cocked hat with its broad brim with loops at 
the side. 

The nice white necktie or white hnen scarf, the end falling 
loosely on his breast (changed for church service for bands and 
surplice), his black velvet or satin breeches with the silver knee 
and shoe buckles, his black silk stockings, the long coat with 
large buttons and the long waist coat with its deep pockets and 
fair ruffles falling over his hands. 

This style of dress marked the clergyman of olden time. 

As in ancient fashion a committee was chosen by the town 
to confer with a clergyman as to what manner he would choose 
to come into town, and to wait on him accordingly. 
30 



234 ^/^^ Records of Oxford. 

Tliere is no mention made of any escort being provided to 
accompany the clergyman into town nntil after the settlement 
of Kev. Ebenezer Newhall in 1823, on his marriage to Miss 
Sarah Clarke, a niece of Prof. Stuart of Andover. On the day 
of their arrival a party of ladies and gentlemen from Oxford 
proceeded with their fine carriages (yellow-bodied chaises) and 
fleet horses to the town of Grafton, twelve miles distant, to there 
wait at the hotel the arrival of the clergyman and his bride ; 
then, as their escort, to accompany them to their pleasant home 
previously made ready for their reception. 

As the hne of carriages entered the village they met many 
people much to the surprise of the bride dressed " in their Sun- 
day best," as on a gala-day, and the people seemed to be all hurry- 
ing in one direction. At the head of the village street the 
white gateway at the parsonage was opened for the reception of 
the party and groups of people were ready to welcome them to 
their new home. They were ushered into the house, every 
apartment furnished, for the furniture had arrived from Boston 
the week previously, and the ladies of the parish had given 
every direction for its arrangement. 

The party were soon invited to the tea-room for a five 
o'clock tea with every delicacy suitable for the occasion. 

Mrs. Newhall writes, " They were our first people " and 
"this was our first home, for Mr. Newhall had been in- 
vited to a parish in the most beautiful country town in all New 
England."* 

In 1832 the south part of Oxford, taken to form the town 
of Webster, which contained much of the most valuable water 
power within its limits, reduced Oxford in her territory and 
commerce. 



* Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart Phelps (a cousin of Mrs. Newhall), in her 
"Sunny Side," published many years since, gives a part of this descrip- 
tion as an illustration of the sunny side in a clergyman's life. 



Notable Old Houses. 235 

The new town has increased to great population, and in its 
large manufacturing: establishments has become a second Man- 
Chester, while Oxford is left in a state of quietude and of great 
beauty and as a country town, ever having been a place of 
cultivated society. In historic incidents Oxford is not to be sur- 
passed by any town in New England. 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

Notable Old Houses. 

In the English settlement of Oxford there were several 
garrison-houses in the town for the protection of the inhabitants 
from an attack from the Indians. The house of Col. Ebenezer 
Learned in the north section was garrisoned (the house is still 
standing). There was a garrison at the house afterward known 
as the Josiah Russell place and the house of Ebenezer 
Humphrey.* 

The house of Col. Ebenezer Learned of North Oxford is one 
of tlie most ancient mansions now remaining in Oxford. " Ox- 
ford May ye tenth, 1714, laid out to Ebenezer Learned his house 
lot at or near a place called ye uper fall's." The house is still in 
good preservation (1S90). "A part of the old house is of a more 
modern construction, having been enlarged many years ago to 
accommodate his son, Capt. Jeremiah Learned, on his marriage. 
The interior of the house is modelled in the English heavy 
massive style of the last century." Col. Learned died in 1772. 
At his decease in his " will " he places Madame Learned under 
the care of his son, Capt. Jeremiah Learned, his son affording 
her "every thing necessary and convenient for her according 

''^Garrison-houses were nothing more than common dwelling-houses 
surrounded by palisades, and furnished with a supply of fire-arms and 
ammunition. 



236 The Records of Oxford. 

to her rank and circumstances,* and my black man Mingof to 
wait upon lier during their natural lives." 

An ancient house is still to be seen near the Eliott Mill 
brook, once the home of Julia Daily. 

In the town records is the following : 

" May 20, 1765. The town's house that Mrs. Bixbee lives 
in it was voted to sell at a vendue and said house was accord- 
ingly sett up at a vendue and Capt . James Griffin bid fifty- 
three pounds old tenor which was the Highest and it was struck 
off to him accordingly." This house was one of the old gar- 
rison-houses in the first settlement of the English in the town, 
and is known in the present century as the residence of the 
late Josiah Russell. In ancient time the house was said to be 
haunted by a treasure being supposed to be buried in the cellar 
which had been obtained by robbery. It was said ever}^ night 
at midnight a man could be heard digging in the cellar, as Capt. 
Reading, a retired sea captain had once been a resident on the 
estate. From an old tomb-stone is the following inscription, 
" Lieut. James Griffin of Gen. Shirley's regiment died Nov. 
17, 1769." 

This house was once the home of Rev. William Phipps, a 



* Ebeuezer Learned's lot is allowed by me as to the quntity of 40 acres 
and the place of being taken up and I Establish liim an Inhabitant in 
Oxford Village. 

Witness my hand May ye tenth, 1714. 

JOHN CHANDLER. 
John Towne, 
Abiel Lamb, 
Benoney Twichell, 

Committee. 

t Mingo was an African slave — his shoes of the largest size. His 
spoon and his block, on which he used to sit in the corner of the deep 
fireplace in the old west room of the house, were preserved until a few 
years since in the family. His place in the chimney-corner was to at- 
tend Madame Learned's wood fire. — Reminiscences of Martha E. Stone. 



Notable Old Houses. 



237 



retired clergyman of Douglas, who had married Mrs. Abigail 
Walker, the widow of Mr. Asa Walker of Sutton, a lady pos- 
sessed of a good dower in a rich landed estate. 

Mrs. Abigail Phipps, widow of Wm. Phipps, Esq., died July 
31, 1820, aged 92 years. 

It was once the home of Peter Shmnway, 2d, October, 1791, 
who came to Oxford on Joshua Chandler's rights. 

In the settlement of Oxford the Indians were observed to 
be lurking about Mr. Hudson's plantation. The family were 
fearful of an attack, and for safety went to the garrison-house, 
which was on the site of the late Josiah Eussell estate, and re- 
mained for two weeks. 

On the Hudson place there was a native apple tree of sweet 
apples, of which fruit the Indians were very fond. This tree was 
the favorite resort of one Indian in particular, who often regaled 
himself with the fruit. 

A part of the decayed trunk of the tree is still to be seen 
(1880) embedded in a wall, as stated by the late Mr. Joseph 
Hudson. 

There is no ancient house of more interest than the Hudson 
house. 

The home of the late Captain Humphrey, which tradition 
states once belonged to Gabriel Bernon. The house by some is 
called "Bowerwood, " so beautifully is it environed by majes- 
tic elms and one ancient oak tree that dates back to the French 
and English settlements and still spreads its branches to shade 
the traveler. 

Capt. Humphrey stated to Dr. Abiel Holmes on one of his 
visits to Oxford that his father kept the garrison-house in the 
French re-settlement of Oxford. There were soldiers from 
Woodstock stationed in Oxford. 

It is a tradition that he also kept a garrison-house in the Eng- 
lish settlement. Tiie descendants of Captain Humphrey have 
been in possession of this estate since the first English settlement. 



238 The Records of Oxford. 

and raanj of the French annals of the town have been preserved 
bv tliis family that otherwise would have been lost in history. 

Capt. Humphrey was in the Revolutionary War and also his 
brother Arthur Humphrey. 

No gentleman was more respected in his time than Capt. 
Humphrey, both in church and town history. He lived to a 
very advanced age and his descendants houor his memory. 

The house of the late Jasper Brown is an ancient house, and- 
was in its time built in a very superior style. It was in olden 
time the home of Duncan Campbell, Esq., for many years, 
from 1748-1778, and afterward of James Butler. The house 
is wainscotted very beautifully ; a buffet ornaments the parlor. 
The house stands with extensive lands on the west side of the 
old North Common, " It is covered with the same shaved clap- 
boards, held by the same hand-wrought nails that were attached 
to it at the time of its erection."* The ancient money coffer, 
inlaid in the wall on the west side of the south-east room, is 
still to be found. The Charlton road, which now passes the 
house on its north side, formerly was located on the south side 
of the house. 

On the south side of the north common at the opening of the 
Satton road, there is one of the most ancient houses in the town. 
It was known for along time as the home of the late Dr. David 
Holman, for many years a physician of Oxford. This ancient 
house is surrounded with much interest. It still retains remnants 
of its former style ; a parlor buffet is preserved, and its ancient 
rich staircase remains as a relic of the past. The house is 



*This old mansion, and every house of any pretension, had its 
" cock loft in the steep gable roof " for its house slaves or negro ser- 
vants. And then tlie huge old chimney passing through this spacious 
attic was found convenient for all the requisites of turning the spit for 
roasting the meats in the kitchen. The services of the " Jack " were of 
great utility before mechanical improvements rendered them unnecessary 
by better methods of turning the spit. 



Notable Old Houses. 239 

pleasantly located, being retired some little distance from the 
Worcester road by an avenue, the lovely old common on one 
side and a once small orchard in front giving a very picturesque 
aspect to this antique house. 

The ancient residence of Mr. Ira Merrimon, at the present 
time, was formerly the home of Dr. Daniel Fiske. The situation 
of the house has ever been attractive on an elevated site over- 
looking the " Oxford lake," but formerly known as " Towne's 
pond," a name given in honor of the family of that name, as 
the lake was a boundary of their plantations.* 

It is said Dr. Daniel Fiske was a gentleman possessed of 
great refinement. On the lake he had pleasure boats, which 
added to the landscape picture, and on the south side of his 
mansion were terraces stretching one after another into the 
valley. These terraces were filled with rich border flowers and 
choice herbs, which have now unfortunately disappeared from 
rustic gardens. 

The residence of Mr. John Mayo commanded, from its site 
near the ancient French fort, a beautiful view of the valley be- 
low and the mountains in the distance. Here was an old-fash- 
ioned garden, with old-time fashioned flowers and sweet herbs, 
with choice peach trees. The flowers were arranged with great 
neatness. The house of Mr. Mayo, with antique garden and 
flowers, and its lovely views of surrounding scenery, rendered 
it the most beautiful spot in the county. Mr. Mayo looked 
out upon the same quiet valley and wooded hill-sides for nearly 
ninety years. In the warm spring days Mr. Mayo would be 
seen sitting on the lawn with a book before hira, for he was 
fond of reading or watching the bees, for in those days there 
were attached to almost every farm-house garden bee-hives 
ranged on the sunny side of a wall. 



* Jacob Towne was the ancestor of General Towne, of Charlton, and 
Col. Sylvanus Towne, of Oxford. 



240 The Records of Oxford. 

(The ancient farm-house and the site of the French garri- 
son-house were formerly approached from the village street by 
two huge gates, one near the entrance of the old Boston road on 
the Woodstock trail, as it was then designated, and the second 
gate above, as the farm-house was more nearly approached.) 

The house of Mr. Samuel Davis of Eoxbnry, who came to 
Oxford soon following its first settlement, is in the style of an 
Endish farm-house. The site of this ancient house was selected 
with much taste. From its height of situation it commands an 
extensive view, not only of the valley lands, with the village of 
Oxford, but distant views of great beauty. The windows of the 
house were originally small and opened outward on hinges. 
They consisted of very small diamond panes of glass set in 
leaden casements. 

The Samuel Davis house was the last known to have thig 
style of windows in the town. Mr. Samuel Davis had pur- 
chased a large tract of land in Oxford of Mr. Gabriel Bernon, 
a French gentleman who possessed a large plantation. On a 
large landed estate, situated on the Boston road about two miles 
from the village street, was the mansion-house of Edward 
Davis, Esq., and subsequently of his son General Jonathan Davis. 
The house was built in the style of an English hall. It would 
appear to have been originally of a brown shade of stone color, 
with its narrow windows heavily and richly set. The house was 
ornamented with a terrace in front. There was an air of home 
comfort and indescribable hospitable aspect about the whole 
mansion. The interior of the house is richly wain scotted. The 
south-east parlor, with its sunny aspect, made it a most charm- 
in «>• room, and an old buffet was one of the attractions in ancient 
time. It contained the silver and the daintiest china possible. 

In this rich wainscotting in one of the apartments (a tiny 
room) there are delightful little cupboards and small drawers 
and over the chimney piece and in the sides of the room of the 
out of the way corners. 



Notable Old Houses. 241 

Such cupboards and drawers are all unknown to modern 
houses. 

If a visitor arrived on a winter's day, the hall door opened 
into a pleasant sunny square room with a cheerful fireside in 
full view, which not only presented warmth and cheerfulness, 
but the comforts and luxuries of a country gentleman's home of 
more than a hundred years ago. 

The comfortable kitchen with its enormous chimney and 
hearth of stone, upon which the embers were rarely if ever ex- 
tinguished, and at its side the high-backed settle, the cupboards 
and dressers resplendent with pewter, and so it appears the home 
of Edward Davis, Esq., possessed every thing that ever mod- 
ern aestheticism could suggest for a country home. 

On the marriage of his son. General Jonathan Davis, who 
succeeded his father as the owner of this valuable landed estate 
as utilityrequired, the mansion was enlarged but its archi- 
tectural beauty was lessened as being strictly an English hall. 

Those quaint old homes are being preserved and all the 
fashions restored. 

There is an effort at the present time in the fashion of 
country residences to have them a perfect reproduction of the 
best colonial type of architecture, and the landscape gardening 
has been made to harmonize with it. 

" One of the most charming features is the profusoin of old- 
fashioned flowers, which were so dear to the hearts of our 
grandmothers, which have never been surpassed in real beauty 
by their more pretentious successors with botanial names to 
give them fashion." 

The visit of General Lafayette to Worcester is included in 
the annals of Oxford. 

"General Jonathan Davis of Oxford received an invitation 
from Judge Lincoln to be present at the reception of Gen. 
Lafayette in Worcester and to extend the invitation to his 
townsmen." 

31 



242 The' Records of Oxford. 

The morning of Sept. 3, 1824, was pleasant, and the drive 
promised an agreeable time. Soon after breakfast General Davis, 
accompanied by several of his friends, all in fine carriages, " the 
rich one-horse chaise with a yellow body,'' and stylish horses. 
But the old Revolutionary soldiers had set out early on footer 
in any conveyance at hand to be there to welcome one whom 
they so well remembered.* 

Town meeting, May 21, 1751, voted to bnild a house for 
Mr. Rogers, to live in as long as he is onr school-master, on the 
town's land neer to the meeting-house.f Sixteen feet long and 
sixteen feet wide, besides convenient room for a chimney, voted 



♦The visit of General Lafayette to Worcester, September 3, 1824, 
was the occasion of an enthusiastic demonstration of popular favor. The 
arrangements were in the charge of a committee of citizens, whose chair- 
man was Judge Levi Lincoln (afterward governor) who entertained the 
General at his own house. He was met at West Boylston by a company 
of cavalry under Capt. James Estabrook, and at the town-line by the 
committee of arrangements. Judge Lincoln met him in a barouche drawn 
by four gray horses at Clark's tavern, a mile or two from the town. A' 
regiment of light infantry, under Lieut. Col. Ward, was added to the 
escort. At the entrance to Dr. William Paine's estate, on Lincoln street, 
an arch of flags was erected over the street ; another over Court Hill, 
decorated by the ladies of the town. 

" The children of the public schools were arranged on each side of Main 
street, and threw bunches of laurel before the carriage of Lafayette. 
Another arch of flags was erected on Main street near the Worcester Bank. 
On the arrival of the procession at Judge Lincoln's house, the Judge in 
behalf of the committee of arrangements, delivered an address of wel- 
come, to which the General replied. A very noticeable part of the honors 
rendered to General Layayette was connected with the veterans of the 
Revolution, who had assembled from town and country villages, and 
formed a line of soldiers in the grounds of the Lincoln mansion house, 
and as he entered, every soldier extended his hand for a welcome to one 
they had known and honored on the field of battle. The General returned 
the greeting with much emotion, addressing them as ' my comrades in 
arms.' " 
tin 1753 this church was removed. 



Notable Old Houses. '243 

thirteen pounds six shillings and eight pence to defray the 

charge of building said house. 

Jeremiah Shumway, 

James Hovey, 

Duncan Cambell, 

Committee. 

This cottao-e for Mr. Roofers was located on the north-east 
corner of theSouth Common fronting south. In later times Mr. 
Rogers' house was known as a part of the Wolcott mansion, it 
being the small house attached to the north-east corner of the 
mansion, used for slaves or colored servants in the family. 

The ancient well, near the highway to the Wolcott mansion, 
with its scooped out Indian mortar which in olden time was 
used for daily bathing was a well belonging to the town and 
attached to the house of Mr. Rogers. 

Very near to the house of Mr. Rogers was the Wolcott 
mansion fronting on the south common. This house was erected 
in 1749 (it is said) for the residence of Duncan Campbell, Esq., 
on his marriage to Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Sterne, 
of Worcester. On the marriage day, accompanied by twelve 
ladies and gentlemen on horseback as an escort, Mr. and Mrs. 
Campbell arrived at their home and commenced house-keeping. 
In 1750-1 Josiah Wolcott, Esq., a gentleman, came to Oxford 
to take possession of his Freake and Papillon estates. He mar- 
ried Isabella, the daughter of Rev. John Campbell, and pur- 
chased this estate of Duncan Campbell. 

This Wolcott home was in its time an elegant residence, con- 
structed with much style, the paneled wainscotting very rich 
and elaborate, its long narrow windows with hoods or cowls, as 
they were termed, over windows and doors. In the spacious 
parlor there was a deep fireplace, ornamented with blue and 
white Dutch tiles, representing scenes from sacred history. On 
the parlor walls were rich French hangings, representing belle 
and beau of the past century, the portraits of the ancient 



244 The Records of Oxford. 

Freake and Wolcott families, painted in the court style of 
Charles II, portraits also of the Kitchen family, with an ancient 
portrait of Judge Wolcott with a huge wig, deep ruffles, and in 
a red velvet mantle, all these portraits representing persons, as 
the town records state, of land proprietors of Oxford. 

A curiously carved buffet, tilled with choice Eastern china 
and heavy silver plate, of such a quantity that an inventory was 
demanded by government, and is still preserved as a relic. 

" And y® sconce a hanging candle stick with a heavy plate 
glass miri'or to reflect y^ rays," graced the walls of the elegant 
old parlor. Rich antique furniture ornamented the apart- 
ments. 

And in the hall were hung funeral hatchments. " A silent 
intimation that the rich have been ^emptying their house and 
replenishing their sepulchres." 

The Earl of Loudoun when he visited the E-ev. John Campy 
bell was also entertained at the Wolcott mansion.* 

The town had sold the church land on the South Common 
to Dr. Holden, a i-esidence fronting on the common, and is 
named in the records of Oxford. It was also the residence of 

* 1771, Monday, March 11. In town meeting, among other items. 
" To know the minds of the Town relating to a strip of laud lying be- 
tween the Revd. Mr. Joseph Bowman's (and) Josiah Wolcott Esqrs. land 
being part of the old Road between their Houses and to do and act thereon 
as the town shall think proper. 

" Voted and granted to the Revd. Mr. Joseph Bowman part of the eight 
Rod Highway between his house and Josiah^ Wolcott, Esqr's., which 
has not heretofore been granted away about four Rod wided to the cor- 
ner of said Mr. Wolcott's Wall extending North as his Board fence now 
stands about sixteen Rods from the Revd. Mr. Bowmans South East cor- 
ner (both residinces fronted south on the south common)."— Town Records, 
p. 144. 

It would appear by this conveyance of land that the road, in place of 
passing on the east side of tlie residence of Josiah Wolcott, was first on 
the west side where the street is now located. The highway on the 
east side is still continued as a private street. 



Notable Old Houses. 245 

Rev. Joseph Bowman. It was a superior house in its time, and a 
part of it is still to be seen, though removed from its former site. 

This house w*is the home of several distinguished families. 
Erasmus Babbitt, Esq., a son of Dr. Babbitt of Sturbridge, 
or Brookfield, was a lawyer. He was educated at Harvard 
University, and on his marriage to Mary, a daughter of 
Thomas Saunders of Gloucester, he became a resident of Ox- 
ford, and occupied this ancient mansion, Mary Eliza Babbitt, 
one of his two daughters, married Elkahan Cushman, and his 
eldest child was Charlotte Saunders Cushman, the celebrated 
actress. Erasmus Babbitt was a captain in the army under Col. 
Rice, stationed in Oxford, in the fall and winter of 1798- 
1799. It is said Capt, Babbitt died in service during the British 
war with the United States, in 1812-1815. 

It was also at one time the residence of Major Archibald 
Campbell, a gentleman distinguished in his time. Afterward 
the old mansion became the home of Mr. John Torrey, of Frank- 
lin, Mass. Mr. and Mrs. Torrey were much esteemed in society. 
Of five sons, two became distinguished lawyers ; the eldest son, 
Ebenezer, was educated at Harvard University, studied law in 
the office of John Shepley, Esq. Mr. Torrey became distin- 
guished in his profession. 'In 1849 he was one of the five senators 
elected at large from Worcester county, and was one of a com- 
mittee on banks and banking. Hon. Rufus Torrey also was 
educated at Harvard University. At Mr. Torrey's decease the 
Mobile Register named him as one of the most estimable 
gentlemen of southern Alabama; he was judge of the County 
Court of Monroe county ; he was chosen to represent the twenty- 
first district in the State Senate ; he died at Claiborne, Alabama, 
September, 1882. 

Harriet, the eldest daughter of John and Sally Richardson 
Torrey, married Lewis Shumway. Sally R., the second daugh- 
ter, married Jonathan Dudley of Sutton. On Sept. 13, 1824, 
" the ladies of Oxford presented an elegant standard to the 



246 The Records of Oxford. 

' Oxford Invincibles,' commanded bj Capt, Andrew Sigonrney, 
Jr. ; the standard was presented to Ensign B. Franklin Camp- 
bell by Miss Sally R. Torrey. Miss Torrey's address to the 
soldiers of the 'Light Infantry' was published in the county 
newspapers and greatly applauded for its merit. Mr. Camp- 
bell's reply was quite noted for its gallantry and patriotism. 
Mr, Campbell closed his address with this sentiment : 'Then, 
with a soldier's devotion, we would offer the trophies of our 
arms and the affection of our hearts, a sacrifice to the holy 
shrine of female virtue.' " 

The ancient school-house on the common was abandoned for 
other localities in different parts of the town, and this an- 
cient building became an English trading-house in Oxford. 
It was owned by Josiah "Wolcott. There are ancient store 
accounts still preserved, showing its trade to have been of 
European and India goods. Various kinds of cloth and 
taffeta are named as items. Then a mug of flip, Boliea tea and 
other commodities were sold to patrons. This trading-house 
was continued for tliirty years or a longer time. Tradition 
states that John Wolcott was the proprietor of a store on 
Sigouniey corner 1782-1793. 

A store was established in Oxford at the close of the 
RcTolutionary War. It was attached to the residence of 
James Butler, opposite the North Common. Mr. Butler and 
his brother in law, Captain Andrew Sigourney, were asso- 
ciated in the business of this country store, which was filled 
with home-made cloths, linen, tow and woolen fabrics, shoes, 
with shoe and knee buckles, gentlemen's hats, for such was the 
demand that a manufactory of liats was included as an item of 
commerce, as well as the manufacturing of potash; wooden ware 
was also represented in spinning-wheels, and there were candle 
sticks and warming-pans, sugar, molasses and tobacco, with cod- 
fish. Madeira wine and Jamacia rum were articles of trade, in- 
cluding Bohea and extra Hyson teas. 



Notable Old Houses. 247 

There were European and India goods, with various small 
commodities. 

They were the first to introduce cotton in this section of the 
country, at one dollar per pound. Long before Samuel Slater 
of England had established his mills for manufacturing cotton 
cloth in Oxford. In ancient time cotton was mixed with flax 
for domestic fabrics. Specimens of this cloth were taken to 
"Worcester to tlie caHco printing establishment of the Stowells,* 
and returned to Oxford as dress o;oods. There are fragments 
of these prints still treasured by some of the descendants of the 
Sigourney family. 

In 1793, or previously, Mr. Butler remained sole proprietor. 
Mr. Sigourney removed to the village street, and was located 
in a store on the corner of the Sutton road. 

To the tourist who now passes through the town it pre- 
sents very little of the appearance that it would a century 
since. Its lovely lakes still glitter in the bright sunshine. The 
quiet French river glides along through the green meadows as 
in days gone by. Rev. Peter Whitney, a quaint historian 
who visited Oxford one hundred years ago, narrates, 1793: 
'' There are two or three stores of European and India goods 
and in the town there are all the common artificers, tradesmen 
and mechanics." (The people being land proprietors.) " There 
are within Oxford limits three grist-mills, six saw-mills, and two 
clothiers' works. There are also in the town potash works." 
"Webster was then a part of Oxford. 

•> The residence of Rev. John Campbell was situated a little 
distance from the South Common, on the Worcester road. After 

* From the newspaper items of Worcester, January 5, 1793 : 

" The weavers shop of Cornelius and Peter Stowell was burned. Loss 

£300. 

" They also carried on calico printing and fancy dyeing." 

In 1793: "Messrs. Stowel by whom the clothier's business in all its 

branches is carried on to perfection. They dye fine scarlet and deep 

blue colors." — Whitney's History. 



248 The Records of Oxford. 

passing the little bridge over the brook there was an avenue to 
the mansion, with its gambrel roof. The house was superior in 
its style of building, and its location possessed many attractions, 
and was regarded as foreign in its style like houses in Scotland. 

A modern house has been erected on its site. 

It was for many years the residence of Nathan Hall, and his 
descendants still retain the estate. 

On the west side of Main street the next ancient site of a 
house was on the estate of the late Sternes De Witt. This 
estate was the plantation of Nathaniel Chamberlain and once 
the home of the Hamlin family, who removed to Maine. 
Then it passed into the possession of Mr. James Gleason. The 
old house was a small square house located just in front of the 
present mansion. The only attraction of the situation was a 
fine landed estate beautifully located, with ancient trees. 

Near the center of Main street, on the corner of the Charl- 
ton road, was the old " red tavern." 

It is said to have been in its day a good and sufficient house, 
with a large chimney in its center giving fire-places to the 
apartments, fit in all respects for a house of entertainment, with 
stables of large accommodations for the time. The old house 
consisted of a large south-east square room, a staircase and a 
room of a smaller size fronting east on the village street. This 
large square room, with a small entry and staircase, with a 
large kitchen annexed, formed the south front on the Charlton 
road. The house was afterward enlarged with other apartments. 

The large south-east room was the " entertaining-room " so. 
called, for in the north-west corner was the bar, where were 
displayed the mugs for fiip, the keg of beer, gray earthen 
crocks with sugar and various wines, with Jamaica rum to 
tempt the traveler or lounger to much dissipation. It is said 
landed estates were lost and won at this bar for a " mug of flip 
and a song," and many widows and orphans suffered severely 
for its existence. The first post-office was in this tavern. The 



Notable Old Houses. 249 

landed estate of the old tavern included the site of the present 
hotel. 

This old red tavern was erected in 1760 by Dr. Alexander 
Campbell. In 1773 Ezra Bowman became the proprietor and 
made many improvements ; he remained until 1782. 

The next old mansion was on the site of the present house of 
Dr. Oushman. It was anciently the residence of Mr. John 
Walker, an English gentleman. It was a notable house with its 
"gamber rnff " (gambrel roof ) and its deep lawn upon the street, 
and its landed estate in back lands, adjacent to the residence, and 
at the present time it is noticeable for elegance. Its ancient 
northern boundary included the Town Hall ; it was bounded 
southerly by Quaboag lane, two rods wide, being a road to 
Charlton and Sturbridge. Mr. Walker married Mary, daughter 
of Duncan Campbell, Esq. The house was richly furnished 
with antique furniture, the walls were adorned with family 
portraits from England. This valuable estate passed into the 
Russell family, and was afterward owned by Jonathan Sibley, 
and then followed by Thomas Nichols as owner of the estate. 

The mansion-house of Abijah Davis, Esq., was the last resi- 
dence in Oxford whicli was built in English style with rich 
wainscotting. It is beautifully located on South Main street, 
once a part of the Hogburn estate. The landed estate was 
very valuable and is so considered at the present time. The house 
was erected 1795. Col. Rice, while in Oxford, occupied for 
his quarters the residence of the late Abijah Davis, Esq. It is 
said " he lived in great style and that Madame Rice required 
many servants and much waiting upon herself, and that she 
was dressed in rich silk gowns and her best wig every day." 

During the administration of John Adams a detachment of 
the United States army, consisting of several regiments of in- 
fantry, was stationed in Oxford under the command of Col. 
Nathaniel Rice of Sturbridge from October, 1798, to June, 
1800. 

32 



250 TJie Records of Oxford. 

On the east side of Main street there was an ancient house on 
or near the site of the residence of the late William Sigourney. 
On the corner of Main street and the Sutton road was the trad- 
ing-house or store of Capt. Andrew Sigourny, Sen, Afterward, 
on the same site, was erected a new store for his son, Capt. 
William Sigourney, and in modern times was a post-office, but 
one hundred years ago there was no post-office in Oxford. On 
the left-hand entrance to the Sutton road near the store was the 
quaint old mansion of Andrew Sigourney, Sen. Opposite the 
store, on the right hand of Main street and on Sutton road, was 
an old house on the site of the present brick house, once the 
residence of Andrew Sigourney, Sen. This part of Main street 
has ever been known as Sigourney corner. 

On the east side of Main street, on the site of the present 
Protestant Episcopal church, there was a house pleasantly 
situated and roomy ; it presented many attractions with its 
pleasant garden. The last house on the east side of the main 
street was that of Dr. Alexander Campbell, a gambrel roof, 
line old mansion, occupying a site in the rear or on the east 
side of the mansion of the heirs of the late Israel Sibley. A 
cottage has been erected on the site of Dr. Campliell's house. 
The estate originally had extensive grounds in front, reaching to 
the street, with large elms as shade trees. These grounds are 
now included with the residence of the Sibley heirs. 

The last house on the main street, west side, was the residence 
of Richard Moore, Esq. This residence was at the south end of 
what was called the " village street." This ancient house, belong- 
ing to the Moore family, was in its day a substantial mansion, 
built in the style of an English hall, its gables being on the 
north and south, fronting on the street, but extending westerly, 
giving a south front, and like every house in those times served 
as a sundial, for at mid-day tlie sun shone square upon the south 
front, and for many years in modern times a leaden sundial was 
seen attached to one of its south window-sills. 



Notable Old Houses. 251 

The broad street door opening into one of its apartments 
was rich and much ornamented in its architecture, as were the 
houses of the gentry ; in its diiierent apartments were large 
broad-breasted chimneys, occupying space sufficient for a good- 
sized apartment, with large open fire-places, and then there was 
in these pleasant rooms rich wainscotting. The house com- 
manded a southern landscape of its own landed estate with a 
narrow lawn and lovely garden.* This landed estate was a 
part of the Samuel Hagburn plantation, and was bounded 
northerly by Quaboag lane. The house was large and elegant. 
It was the home of Richard Moore, Sen., in his declining years, 
and also of his son Richard, and also of Marvin, son of Richard. 

The giant oak which anciently overshadowed the Moore res- 
idence still stands on the lawn as a sentinel on duty and a 
landmark to direct the traveler. It was a tree of great size 
and age two hundred years ago, and from one decade of years 
to another has shaded many groups of children in their childish 
sports. The old oak could tell many stories of those who have 
played beneath its shade, and grown old and passed away.f 

" I swear by leaf, and wind, and rain, 
And hear me with thine ears, 
That I circle in the grain 
Five hundred rings of years. 

" And I have shadowed many a group 
Of beauties that were born 
In tea-cup times of hood and hoop, 

Or while the patch was worn." — Tennyson. 



* In New England tall English clocks were uncommon; few were im- 
TDorted, but soon came into general use. In some English church-yards 
there were sundials of stone and a sundial over the door of a south front 
on old English churches. 

t The late Honorable Ira Moore Barton of Worcester, Mass., often visited 
the Moore place as the home of his ancestors. The Moore family were 
originally of Scotch extraction, tracing back their ancestry to the time 
of William the Conqueror. 



252 The Records of Oxford, 

Timothy Harris removed to Oxford in 1733, from Water- 
town, Laving purchased the old Huguenot mill at the south 
end of the village street in Oxford, on the road to the French 
Fort, owned in the French settlement by Gabriel Bernon. 
This mill lot was once the plantation of Jonathan Tillotson, a 
planter in the English settlement. 

Mr. Harris and his descendants retained this estate for one 
hundred and fifty years. There was an ancient house on this 
estate which was regarded with interest into the present cen- 
tury. 

A small house with a half acre of land on Main street nearly 
opposite the Town Hall was the home of Abner Miller, the 
sexton of the village. There is a tradition that a gentleman 
resided here as a recluse, boarding at the Eed Tavern, and was 
always engaged in writing. He had received many services 
from Abner Miller, and on leaving town he placed his house 
and land in the care of Mr. Miller until his return ; he never 
appeared and Miller held the estate. 

On the Red Tavern estate north on the site of the Town 
Hall was a small cottage which was erected by the heirs of Dr. 
Alexander Campbell, who died at his home east of Israel 
Sibley's house January, 1785, for his widow, who survived him 
until March, 1816, she having relinquished her dower to favor 
the heirs iu the rich old gambrel-roofed mansion situated 
easterl}^ of the present estate of the late Israel Sibley estate. 



Roads mid Milestones. 253 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Roads and Milestones. 

Milestones. 
The old milestone on Lincoln street, Worcester, is of red 
sandstone, with the following inscription : 

43 

Miles from 

Boston 50 to 

Springfield, 

1771. 

By a Provincial enactment made in Governor Hutchinson's 
time, this milestone was one of many placed in the year 1771 
along on the " New Connecticut road," which way was after- 
ward called the " post road " from Boston to New York and 
Albany. This road left Boston for Marlborough thence to 
Quinsigamond (Worcester) and then to Brookfield and so on to 
Springfield. 

In the history of the town of Northborough, once a part of 
Marlborough, it is stated " The oldest vestige of pioneer life 
still in existence is doubtless the great road to Worcester, as it 
is called." 

Originally this road in 1672 was only a pathway or trail 
through the forests, when Marlborough was a frontier settle- 
ment with its garrison house. After leaving Marlborough 
there was no habitation on the Boston road to Springfield until 
the garrison house was reached at Qnabaug (now Brookfield) 
with the exception in Quinsigamond (Worcester) of a little 
Indian town of huts on Fakachoag Hill, the highlands of 
which reach the town of Auburn. On or near the site of this 
Indian town is now located " Holy Cross College." 



254 The Records of Oxford. 

This Indian town is described bj Gookin : 

" This village Ijeth about three miles south of the new 
roadway that leadeth from Boston to Connecticut; it consists 
of about twenty families. This town is situated upon a fer- 
tile hill and is denominated from a delicate spring of water 
that is there." 

Settlement of Worcester. "A tract of land eight miles 
square was purchased of the Indians for twelve pounds lawful 
money. The deed bears date July 13, 1674." 

Dec. 2, 1675, Increase Mather writes : '* This day all the 
houses in Quonsukamuck (Worcester) were burned by the 
Indians." 

"At what is West Brookfield, near to the south-west end of 
Wickabaug Pond, on a knoll below the junction of the waters 
of the pond with Quabaug river, stood Mark's garrison." 

Quabaug (Brookfield) became the established English bridle 
path between the Bay and the Connecticut. " The single 
horseman or a cavalcade of riders and pack horses was a com- 
mon sight to the Indians." The Old Connecticut road had hi 
a manner ceased to be used as the most traveled path to Con- 
necticut and was already displaced by the New Connecticut 
road. 

The Old Connecticut road was the inland trail of Massachu- 
setts of which we have the most ancient account. From 
Cambridge it proceeded to the south-east part of Marlborough, 
then passed to Hassamamisett (Grafton, a part of the township 
of Sutton) and thence to Oxford near the French fort, Wood- 
stock and so on to Springfield. 

It is stated that in the autumn of 1630 the chief of the Indians 
of Wabquasset, now Woodstock, visited the Enghsh .governor 
at the Bay to establish a trading house, and this Indian trading 
expedition brought this forest path to the knowledge of the 
English, who made it their way to travel to the Connecticut 
Valley. 



Roads and Milestones. 



255 



John Oldham followed this old Connecticut path in 1633, 
odging in Indian towns all the waj. A well-defined trail 
from Mount Hope and the Narraganset country, known as the 
Providence path, intersected the Old Connecticut path in or 
near Woodstock. Another trail, known as the Nipmuck path, 
came from ISTorwich to the same point of junction. From 
here a branch track proceeded to the north-west into Sturbridge, 
where it separated, one track going westerly past the lead 
mines, and on to Springfield. Miss Ellen D. Larned, the 
author of the History of Windham County, writes of this 
"Connecticut path:" "This rude track became the main 
thoroughfare between the two colonies, Massachusetts and 
Connecticut. Hundreds of families toiled over it to reach 
homes in the wilderness. The fathers of Hartford and New 
Haven, niinisters and governors, captains and commissioners, 
government oflScials and land speculators, crossed and recrossed 
this forest path." 

There were milestones placed all the way along this " Old 
Connecticut road" from Boston to Springfield. 

On the southerly front of the site of the house of Col. 
Woodbury in Sutton stands the queen of all milestones ; it is • 
of red sandstone, five feet in height, two feet wide and eight 
inches in thickness, with this inscription : 



48 

ML To , 

Boston 

1771 

B W 



Col. Bartholomew Woodbury of Sutton was the proprietor 
of a country inn which was with a fine landed estate situated 
on this " Old Connecticut road." Col. Woodbury offered the 
commissioners, who were directing the sites of the milestones, 
if they would make the last mile a little less than its limit, 



256 The Records of Oxford. 

placing it near to bis house, that it might attract travellers, he 
would be at the expense of erecting the milestone, and that it 
should excel all others en route from Boston to Springfield on 
this same Old Connecticut road. 

At every country inn there was a horse block for the con- 
venience of travellers on horseback — a gentleman in the 
saddle, may be, and a lady on a pillion beliind him. Ladies of 
high position had a separate horse with a side-saddle, and were 
escorted by a gentleman or a servant, and to avoid the gaze of 
travellers wore masks of black velvet, as was the fashion of 
the time. 

Long since the brown house, with its huge cobble stone 
chimney and oven outside the house, has passed away and only 
its stately milestone with its companion, the horse block, 
covered in the summer time with greenery and flowers, remain 
to mark the site of the " Wayside Inn." There is one notable 
milestone in Oxford on this Old Connecticut road where the 
Sutton road enters the village street. It stands on Sigourney 
corner and was erected by Josiah Wolcott, a resident of Ox- 
ford, with tliis inscription : 

53i 

Miles to 

Boston 

J «fe W 

1771 

Milestones were anciently placed along the roads in eastern 
countries. 

It is said by travellers at the present time in Palestine they 
may be seen here and there in that country. 

Milestones were once common in England, viz., the roads 
leading from London to the large towns. 

" 'Tis such an easy walk, so smooth and straight, 
The second milestone fronts the garden gate." 

— '^^ Retirement,''' Cowper. 



Roads and Mile stories. 257 

The Bay Path. 

In 1673 this highway was established for the use of the 
country leading from Watertowu as the nearest and best way 
to Marlborough and thence to Quabaug (Brookfield). This 
new path left the " Old Connecticut path " at " Happy Hol- 
low" (now in Wayland) and passed through Marlborough, 
Worcester, Oxford in its northern section, Charlton on to 
Brookfield where it parted, one branch following the old trail or 
Old Connecticut road to Springfield, and the other leading on 
through Ware and Belchertown to Hadley. 

The late Hon. Salem Towne, of Charlton, stated that re- 
mains of the " Old Bay road " were still to be seen lying in the 
western valley lands of Charlton ; vestiges of this " Bay road" 
are still remaining in Oxford on the Old North Charlton road. 

The " Old Bay path " is beautifully described by Dr. 
Holland in his romance of that name. 

" It was a path marked by trees a portion of the distance, 
and by slight clearings of brush and thicket for the remainder. 
No stream was bridged, no hill graded, and no marsh drained. 
The path led through woods which bore the mark of centuries, 
over barren hills that had been licked by the Indian's hounds 
of fire, and along the banks of streams that the seine had 
never dragged." 

Note. — In July, 1675, Ephraim Curtis was engaged to conduct 
' ' Uncas his six men " from Boston home. He says, * ' I conducted [them] 
safly while I com in sight of Webquesesne new planting fielde, first to 
Natuck, from thenc to Marelborrow, thenc to Esnemisco, thenc to 
Murachogg [Oxford], thenc to Chabanagon komug, thenc to Mayenecket, 
thenc over the river to Seneksig, while wee cam nere to Wabaquasesn 
wher they were willing that wee should leve them," — Mass. Arch., Ixvii, 
214. 

The old Connecticut road or Woodstock path, now the road to 
Webster, was long since trod by the Connecticut pioneers, Huguenots, 
and many others. The Shumway house was on this Old Connecticut 
road. . "~"" • • - 

33 . 



258 The Records of Oxford. 

"It is wonderful what a powerful interest was attached to 
the Bay path, the rough thread of soil, chopped by the blades 
of a hundred streams, was the one way left open, through 
which the sweet tide of sympathy might flow. Every rod had 
been prayed over by friends on the journey and friends at 
home. If every traveller had raised his Ebenezer as the morn- 
ing dawned upon his trusting sleep, the monuments would have 
risen and stood like milestones." 

The late Mr. Samuel Mayo, whose ancestors were ia the 
English settlement of Oxford, stated that the old Connecticut 
road or Boston road passed near to the French fort in Oxford and 
could be traced for a considerable distance, it being on the Indian 
great trail to Woodstock, Ct., passing by or very near the resi- 
dence of late John Hurd. This old Connecticut road passed 
near to the mills known for many years as owned by Ebenezer 
Rich, and then near the residence of Samuel Davis. 

" In 1656 the road or bridle-path from Boston to Hadley was 
to Marlborough, then to Brookfield, the nearest settlement west, 
and then on to Hadley meadows, guided t)y blazed or marked 
trees through the wilderness, to Brookfield in the road of Con- 
necticut. 

" The Old Bay path or road crossed the Quaboag at Brookfield, 
following somewhat the course of this (river), and " Chicuppee 
to Indian Orchard, thence to Agawam (Springfield)."'^ 

*In 1674 Major Gookin states in naming Hassanamesit [Grafton] : " It 
is near unto the old road way to Connecticut." The most direct route 
from Grafton to Woodstock, Ct., is tlirough Oxford. 

On a plan dated April 1, 1713, in the Massachusetts Archives, of a 
grant of land to Jethro Coffin, located in Northbridge, there is laid 
down easterly and westerly, a line designated as the " French road " (to 
Oxford). — Plan» and Grants, i, 240. 

Marlboro Records, May 21, 1G88. There is mention made in view 
of a line of division between the western and eastern parts of the town. 
" To be made by a line at the cart- way at Stirrup-Brook, where Conecti- 



Roads and Milestones. 259 

From the Sutton Eecords is the following reference to the 
Oxford road through Sutton : " The road from Oxford to Marl- 
borough, beginning at the farms, * so returning upon the point of 
compasse to the meeting-honse hill, thence to the north side of 
Ehsha Johnson's house to Cold-spring brook, six rods wide 
from the heads of the proprietors' jlotts — laid out March, 1716, 
by Nathaniel Brewer, Jonathan Draper, Eleazur Daniels." 

Elisha Johnson's cabin was situated very near the place now 
occupied by Samuel Prescott. 

In 1713 old roads in the English settlement of Oxford : " A 
way laid out by the select men beginning att a white oake tree 

coat way now goeth over " (uow within the limits of Northborough, a 
part of Marlborough). 

In 1717 this division line was one of the boundary lines of the town 
of Westboro. 

This way was called in the old records '' the great trail, " as jjlainly 
indicating that it was originally the Indian path — (which passed the 
French fort in Oxford to Woodstock). 

March 30, 1683. There is a record of a petition for a bridge across 
the "Medfield river." 

The court grant the petition. " Whereas, the way to Kenecticut 
now used, being very hazardous to travellers, by reason of one deep river 
that is passed fower or five times over, which may be avoided as is con- 
ceived by a better and nearer way, it is refered to Major Pyuchon to order 
the said to be laid out and well marked." — Mass. Col. Rec, v, 391. 

" Quaboag lane" in Oxford, once an Indian trail to Brookfield, which 
forded the river near the stone arch bridge entered the Eight-rod way 
from the west, bounding the north side of the estate of late Abijah 
Davis, formerly a part of the plantation of Samuel Hagburn. 

In 1711 there is a record of land of Major Fitch included in Windham 
County, Ct., in the northern part of the county where the " Connecticut 
path " is designated as entering the town of Thompson, near the middle 
of its northern boundary-line and near to where the "Frenchtown river,'' 
as there named, enters the town. This Connecticut path it would appear 
must have been on the westerly side of Chanbunagungamaug pond and 
this would indicate that its course was through Oxford . 

*" Manchaug Farms " (West Sutton). 



26o The Records of Oxford. 

on Jonson's plain near Woodstock path running northwardly- 
marked on the west sid to neland's feald on the great plain by 
the old mill place, from thence marked on the East sid by staks 
and trees tel it corns to the brooke on the Northwardly sid of 
peter Shumway's frame of his house, from thence on the West 
sid of the swamp to and by the ends of the house lots of John 
Town and Daniel Eloit Juuer sd way being Eight rods wide laid 
out f nbruary the sixt 1713-4 " — Ibid.; 1 Village Mec. This 
" way " included the present Main street. 

May 24, 1716, at a town meeting legally warned Richard 
Moore, chosen moderator voted in y® affirmative y* there should 
be a east bridg built ouer y^ brook in y^ Eight Rod highway 
y® brook commonly called 3^^ mill brook. 

May 24, 1716, voted y' there shall be a bridg made passabal 
for horses ouer y* brook by Jonathan Tillotsons on the four rod 
way to the fort. 

May 24, 1716, voted also y* there shall be a bridg built ouer 
y® brook in y^ highway near Ollouer Collers on the Sutton road. 

The Record of Mr. campbols petison to y® proprietors of ox- 
ford village : 

oxford, march 16*^ 1723. 
Gentlemen : 

Whereas I haue for the benefit of Trauellers and Inhabit- 
ants Turned the eight rod highway opposite to my house and 
the two rod highway that Leads to the great meadow ; the eight 
rod highway is Shortened about ten or eleuen rods and the other 
about so maney as ahso it hath saved the making of a bridge of 
some considerable charges and therefore I humbly Request that 
you would be pleased to accept of the Turning of the aboue 
Said ways at your next meeting. 

JOHN CAMPBELL. 

At a proprietors meeting March 19^'', 1723, in oxford uillge 
the queston being put whether Mr. Campbell's Request Should 
be Granted which was voted in the alirmatiue. 



Roads and Milestones. 261 

March 11, 1759. " To accept of the county road 4 rods wide 
from the stone bridge by the Rev. Mr. Campbell's land then 
through a corner of Mr. Campbell's land and also through Mr. 
Duncan Campbell's land that he bought lately of Mr. Joseph 
Eocket straight into the county road west of the barn on said 
land allowing said Duncan Campbell liberty to shut up four 
rods of the eight rod road against Dr. Ilolden's and Mr.- 
Mellins." 

Town meeting May 20, 1765, voted to accept of a Bridle road 
from Mr. William Erowns to Mr. John Town's house instead 
of an open one ; upon consideration that Isaac Town will make 
and. maintain two suitable gates, one at each end of said 
Road.* 

French river, so called by the English, runs through the town. 
The river runs about three-quarters of a mile west of the 
great road that leads over Oxford plain, and falls into the Quine- 
bang in the town of Thompson, in Connecticut. Rev. Dr. 
Holmes writes : In passing the bridge which is at a considerable 
distance below the village of Oxford (on the Webster road), 
seeing a boy near the bridge I asked him, "What is the 

*In 1808, to facilitate travel and for the more rapid communication by 
mail, the Providence and Douglas turnpike was made through what at 
that time was almost a dense forest. Another turnpike, which was a 
continuation of this Providence road, extended from Douglas to Oxford 
and for many years it was the most direct traveled route from Providence 
to Oxford and the towns in the vicinity. It passed througli a large tract 
of land in the Douglas woods, including the Streeter farm, so called. 
This " Gore turnpike " through the woods was built in 182G. The terri- 
tory lying west of Douglas previously to this date was known as " Ox- 
ford South Gore,'' now Webster, and a road crossing the turnpike in the 
south part, of the town as the " Gore road !" There were toll-gates on the 
turnpike road ; each person on horseback or with a chaise was required to 
pay twelve and a half cents at these gates. At about the close of the last 
century the Boston and New York turnpike passed through this section 
of country. There was an immense amount of travel over this road during 
the War of 1813 from all of the eastern towns. 



262 The Records of Oxford. 

name of tins river?" "French^' river," lie replied. " Wliy," 
I asked, " is it called French river?" "I believe," said he, 
" there was some French people once here," — pointing up the 
stream. 

The Eight-rod way, so named in the English settlement of 
the town, commenced south at the junction of the present 
Thompson and Webster roads at the farm long known as the 
Jonas Leonard estate, passing northerly over Johnson's Plain, 
the Great Plain and Towne's Plain, including the Daniel Eliott 
mill estate on the north. 

Upon the Eight-rod way were located mostl}^ the plantations 
of the English in their settlement of Oxford. On the Great Plain 
south was the plantation of Samuel Hagburu on the west side ; 
it reached northerly to Quaboag lane ; on the easterly side from 
the Huguenot mill estate on its northern boundarj^ to the 
Episcopal church, including the site of a house north of this 
church. Thomas Gleason, a gentleman who possessed wealth, 
was an original proprietor of a plantation on the south-east 
corner of Main street and Sutton road, now known as Andrew 
Sigourney corner. This plantation bounded on the south the 
Samuel Hagburn estate. The Gleason estate extended on the 
Sutton road to the brook. Oliver Coller's plantation was on 
the north-east corner of Main street and the Sutton road ; on 
the Sutton road it extended to the brook and northerly on 
Main street to the plantation of Joseph Rockwood — which 
included the Josiah Wolcott estate and joined the estate of 
Rev. John Campbell. Nathaniel Chamberlain's plantation 
extended from the South Common to the estate of Benjamin 
Chamberlain, which included the site of Memorial Hall, Old 
Red Tavern and extended south to Quaboag lane. 



* This river was called French river in the early English settlement. 
It is named as a boundary in Rev. John Campbell's " Will." The Indian 
name of the French river was the Maanexit. It might ever have been 
retained by the English as a memento of the Nipmuck Indians. 



Roads and Milestones. 263 

Towne's Plain — John Towne, one of the original proprie- 
tors of Oxford, resided on a part of his plantation which ad- 
joined the North Common, at the present time, 1890, known 
as the estate of Joseph Stephens. John Towne conveyed this 
estate to his son Jonathan, who gave the estate to his son John, 
who was a Captain in the War of the Ke volution. Ephraim 
Towne, son of John Towne, Sen., owned the estate west of the 
North Common, and with his brother Jonathan, known at 
present as the estate of late Joseph Brown. Jonathan Towne 
conveyed to Duncan Campbell in 1748, who erected the 
present house. Israel Towne was the proprietor of the estate 
opposite Towne's pond, known once as the Dr. Daniel Fiske 
estate, later as the estate of Ira Merriam. 

In 1749 a road from Jacob Towne's into the old Charlton 
road north of Towne's pond. 

In 1736 the Court of Sessions ordered a cart bridge to be 
built over the river in the North gore " on the road to Oxford." 

The road easterly of the North Common to Sutton was 
made prior to 1750. 

In 1788 a road was made to Sntton past the Lovett farm. 

In 1803 a road from present Howarth north to Charlton 
road was accepted. 

July, 1817, from Nichols' mill east and south by the pond to 
Charlton road; a cart road with bars and gate had been estab- 
lished prior to this date. 

1791 a road to Charlton from Gen. Leonard's west, two rods 
wide, at present time discontinued. 

March, 1731, a road from the Eight-rod way on (Towne's 
Plain) north side of Towne's pond, past the little cedar swamp 
and crossing the river at Joseph Brown's place, discontinued 
in 1819. 

May, 1793, from North Common west to the bridge inter- 
secting the old road to Charlton, north of Towne's pond, con- 
tinued to the present time. 



264 The Records of Oxford. 

A road to Charlton was laid out and completed in 1786 from 
Lieut. John Nichols', on the Sturbridge road, near the present 
school-house in the Buffum district, easterly over the river at 
the present stone bridge, entering the Main street near the 
tavern at the center. 

An old record states, " began four rods south of the house 
of Ezra Bowman inn-holder on westerly to a popple in Qua- 
boag or town road, thence west to the river and Coburn's land, 
thence on near John Nichols' house." 

" Coming home from Worcester on Tuesday night my horse 
fell with me and hurt me so that I cannot be at Worcester this 
court. You will take care of the road with Maj"" Upham if he 
is needed. You can inform the court that the Town of Oxford 
maintains seven Bridges over the same river, [French] and 
this not of any service to the Town, it is thought that it will 
cost the Town Two hundred pounds if it is accepted. There is 
one Bridge within less than a hundred rods, there is one other 
Bridge that is to be built over the same river to come to Town 
from Elijah Leonard's and that part of the Town it is thought a 
great burden if it is accepted as the bench is very thin it may 
be left to put it to August. You can inform the court that the 
Town are very unanimous in opposing it. 

" from yours to serve 

" Oxford, June 15**^ 1797. SILVANUS TOWN. 

" Maj' John D. Dunbar." 



Taverns and Post-offices. 265 

CHAPTER XX. 

Taverns and Post-offices. 

Daniel Eliott was the first inn-holder in Oxford, 1714, at the 
extreme north end of the village, near the crossing of the 
Eliott mill brook and Worcester road and the Hawes estate, 
which includes some of the Eliott place. 

In 1715 the second tavern was that of Richard Moore, who 
was licensed on the Samuel Hagburn estate, which he had 
purchased, subsequently owned by Dr. Alexander Campbell as 
a residence, late Israel Sibley estate. The house was located a 
little distance easterly of Main street. 

For forty-five years it was the hotel of the village. In 1734: 
Elijah, son of Richard Moore, succeeded his father and con- 
tinued until 1760. 

Moses Marcy was licensed in 1736 as a tavern-keeper in Ox- 
ford, at the most westerly part of the town, now Southbridge. 

" Worcester S S Anno R' R^ Georgij Secundi nunc Magnse 
Britaniae Franciae et Hiberniae Octavo. 

Att a Court of Generall Sessions of the peace begun and held 
at Worcester within and for the County of Worcester on The 
Second Tuesday of August being the thirteenth day of Said 
month Annoq Dom 1734" — 

" Tavern Keepers and Retailors Lycenced y® year Ensuing & 
y* gave bond." 

Oxford 
Elijah Mooke Inholdr 
1735 
" A list of Tavern Keepers and Retailors Lycenced by this 
Court & y^ names of the Suretys." 
34 



266 The Records of Oxford. 

Oxford 

Mr. Elijah Moore; Capt. Moore principall, Siiretys Capt. 
Flagg & Joe: Crosby. 

Mr. Moses Marcy principall — Suretys Capt. Flagg & J no. 
Stacy New Medfield. 

1636 

" A list of Inholders and Retailors lycenced by this Court 
with y* Names of their Suretys each principall Recognized in 
fifty pound and Each Surety in Twenty five pounds. 

" The following persons are Inholders unless Retailor is added 
to there names." 

OXFOKD 

Mr. Elijah Moore, Capt. Moore principall Suretys Danl New- 
hall Joe Crosby. 

Capt. Moses Marcy Capt. Flagg principall Suretys Jno 
Harwood Joseph Dyer. 

To keep a tavern " a convenient sign was to be set out at 
the most conspicuous " place to give notice to strangers. There 
was a tall staff in front of the South tavern which swnng aloft 
in the \vind the creaking sign board. In days away back hi 
the history of the town this hotel was a noted resort, when public 
meetings, dances, balls and other assemblies of a political, 
social and business character were usually held in such public 
houses, and being then famed for athletic games, for the excel- 
lency of its flip and punch. It was the gathering place of con- 
vival spirits in Oxford and the country around in its vicinity. 
As for the bar-room itself it was usually filled with village 
loungers. Samuel Campbell it is said was the proprietor and 
landlord of this hotel some years. In the olden time before 
daily papers and mails were established, the neighbors used to 
gather at the village tavern to learn the news from travelers, 
and find out about the markets by teamsters from Boston. 

Col. Sylvanus Learned, on his return home from the Revolu- 
tionary War, after a long service, received $1,500 in Continental 



Taverns and Post-offices. 267 

money, which one day in the tavern he sold for a mug of flip. 
CoL Learned considered his payment as worthless and made 
this disposal as to its value. 

It is related that upon a time a " professional " from a dis- 
tance having heard of Samuel Davis,* known in all the region 
as a wrestler, came to town to try a match with him. 

" News of the affair quickly spread through the village, and a 
large company assembled at the old tavern on the plain to see 
the sport. Mr. Davis, who was not personally known to his 
opponent, kept a little in the back ground, and when the match 
was "called," his brother Elijah, who was a stalwart man, stepped 
forward, and grappling with the champion, after somewhat a 
lengthened contest, was thrown. Samuel, who had watched 
closely his antagonist for the purpose of learning his game, 
now walked into the ring, saying : " I am the man you came to 
Oxford to wrestle with," and very soon demonstrated his 
superiority."! 

" In 1777 Agreeable to an act of court entitled, ' An act to 
prevent monopoly and oppression,' "Inn-holders for a meal 
of victuals of their best kind not to exceed Is. 6d. and of com- 
mon kind 8d, flip made of the best New England rum pr. muo- 
8d. and made from West India rum not to exceed lOd." 

" For lodging a single person over night, 3^d. For keeping 
a horse 24 hours Is. 3d.":{: 

* Mr. Davis, of Oxford, it is said, was noted as a person of great mus- 
cular strength. In person he was tall and broad-breasted, possessed of 
a fine personal appearance, and was ever fond of all athletic games — in 
which he excelled. His residence was on the landed estate now owned 
by Charles Lovett. 

t History of Samuel Davis of Oxford and Jiis Descendants. 

X M'" Dunbar. Br. 

To Breakfast. 4 6 

Dinner, 5 7 

Supper, 1 \ 



268 The Records of Oxford. 

Major Dunham of Col. Nathan Rice's* Regiment, then quar- 
tered in Oxford, delivered an address in January, 1800, to the 
soldiers. Free Masons and citizens of Oxford, on receiving 
the announcement of the death of General Washington, who 
died at his residence at Mount Vernon, Dec. 14, 1799. 

The people assembled with crape on their arms, followed by 
a company of militia with muffled drums. This military and 
Masonic funeral procession was formed on Oxford plain, includ- 
ing Col. Rice's Regiment, and proceeded as far as the old North 

To Lodging 1 4 

Grog 

Wine 3 

Punch 

Servants 

Horses 9 

Seat in Stage to 

£17 4 

Received Payment, 1794, March 29, 

Ephraim Mower. 

(Capt. Ephraim Mower's tavern was at the corner of Mechanic street, 
near the spot where Clark's Block now stands, in Worcester.) 

*In Oxford, October, 1798, a detachment of the United States Army, 
consisting of four regiments of Infantry under the command of Col. 
Nathan Rice, was stationed in Oxford on the high land west of the vil- 
lage street, afterward known as Camp hill. A number of the officers of 
this army had their headquarters at the two hotels. It is said at the 
old tavern on the north common that the " money cofifer " used by them 
is still to be seen in the south-east room. Soldiers for disobedience were 
fastened to the staff which supported the south tavern sign, and received 
a severe punishment at this whipping-post. 

The high land west of the village street, occupied by Col. Rice's Regi- 
ment, long retained the name of Camp hill as having been the place of 
the soldiers' encampment. Opposite this height of land, on the south 
side of the road leaving Oxford, there are the remains of a ditch made 
by the soldiers as a punishment for their misdemeanors. 



Taverns and Post-offices. 269 

Common. A coffin was borne on a bier and surmounted by a 
funeral urn.* 

" Lt. Everett, 5 Mass. Reg. : 

" General Washington presents his compliments to Lt. Everett, and 
requests the favor of his company at dinner tomorrow, 3 o'clock, Tuesday. 

''Answer if you please." 

This note of invitation is now in the possession of Leonard 
E. Thayer, a lineal descendant of Col. Everett. 

It is said that the soldiers in the army stationed in Oxford 
in the years 1798, 1799 and 1800 introduced much dissipation 
into the town. 

At the tavern on the village street the barroom was so 
crowded evenings with soldiers calling for their mug of flip, 
that the bar-keeper was obliged in taking the red heated 
logger head from the fire, to brandish it before him to permit 
himself to enter the bar. 

The sale of wine and brandy was immense, and that a large 
income from it was derived by the proprietor is not to be 
doubted. At the north tavern there was no bar at this time, 
and it was no place sought as a resort for the soldiers. It ap- 
pears there was no bar in this hotel until after the year 1820. 

There was an ancient store attached to this hotel on the north 
side, where Madeira wine was sold, with brandy and Jamaica 
rum. If any guests wished for the wine, etc., they were fur- 
nished from the store or cellar. 

There was much boiling, roasting and baking going on in the 
tavern before the " muster." 

The militia trainings, too, made lively days at the village 



*The following item is found in the Worcester Sfy, dated June 18, 
1800: 

''On Tuesday the 10th inst, Gen. Alexander Hamilton and his suite 
arrived at Oxford to settle the business relative to the discharge of the 
troops stationed there; and on Friday last he passed through this town 
on his way to Boston." 



270 The Records of Oxford. 

tavern, aud then the old-fashioned muster (or military review) 
which came in September, the mustering of all the com- 
panies of soldiers in a regiment or brigade for a general 
training. At sunrise the drums were beating. The general 
reviewed the soldiers and the military review ended in a sham 
fight. Each company endeavored to be first on parade to go 
through with its manoeuvres in presence of an admiring crowd 
of spectators, the tifes playing " Yankee Boodle " and " On 
the road to Boston," tunes which had animated the hearts of 
the soldiers of the Revolution. 

The uniforms were blue coats with red facings and bright 
buttons, white pantaloons, caps with tall white plumes tipped 
with red. 

The annual muster (or regimental training) was a great oc- 
casion for these military reviews. The companies, infantry and 
light artillery, riflemen, grenadiers and cavalry or troopers and 
artillery, with their cannons, assembled together and became the 
center of attraction. Military officers retired from service wel- 
comed the review by their presence. Men and boys followed 
them on the public roads. Horse jockeys, gingerbread carts, 
peddlers of every description, with showmen with wax figures, 
monkeys and bears, enlivened the day, and all became as a grand 
carnival. These scenes of gayety sometimes were for two 
days continued. In Oxford the ground chosen for this military 
review was selected on the estate of late Andrew Sigourney 
near the corner of IMain street and Sutton road in a large field 
adjoining his brick mansion house, bounded northerly by the 
Sutton road. In Sutton the large fields of the late James Free- 
land's farm were selected. 

It is said military trainings were then common in all the 
country towns. Much rivalship was manifested by the towns 
to see which could produce the best-drilled, uniformed, armed 
and equipped companies. The regimental musters or reviews 
were scenes of great public festivity and enjoyment. 



Taverns and Post-offices. 271 

One can picture a village tavern at nightfall. There had 
arrived travelers on horseback with portmanteaus made of 
leather, or as substitutes long sacks M'oven of coarse red and 
green yarn, with leather tops and bottoms, called saddlebags, 
into which all their luggage however minute or bulky had 
been packed. 

Ladies as well as gentlemen traveled in this fashion, with 
side saddles, and children were transported through the coun- 
try in the same manner, sitting on pillions (little cushions 
stuffed with feathers) attached to the saddle, with one hand 
holding to the crupper of the saddle and one clinging to the 
person in front of them by means of a scarf attached to the 
waist of the rider, or sometimes when the pillion is occupied 
by a lady the children are placed in front of the gentleman. 
Most ladies traveled on horseback, and ladies made long 
journeys in this way, riding alone or with a friend or servant 
who was himself on horseback and usually well armed, for the 
roads were not always safe. 

In front of the tavern there stood great carts filled with 
spinning-wheels for country trade, wagons filled with com- 
mon household furniture, and all things necessary for a new 
settlement, peddler's carts of every description, and stock 
drovers, for that old house once swarmed with guests, but its 
day is done, and its old " green, spindle-backed arm chairs " 
have become things of the past. The old tavern well on the 
opposite side of the Charlton road still remains.* 

Formerly there were more public-houses in the country 
villages than at the present time. Travelers then had their 



* A few years since the daughter of Samuel Campbell (the innkeeper) 
revisited Oxford, having been absent over forty years. She said when 
upon the street she drank water from this old well ; that it was all that 
would recall Oxford to her memory as existing in her childhood, so 
great had been the change upon the village street, and this well had 
supplied the village school. 



2/2 The Records of Oxford. 

town private carriages of some description, and sought the hos- 
tality of the village tavern. There would be seen at its open door 
at noon or at evening a blue or red painted coach belonging to 
some family of wealth, low hung and broad wheeled, with its 
colored coachman, or a stout, large, square-top chaise containing 
some stylish gentleman, and maybe accompanied by a lady 
journeying to some distant part of the country. The chaise in 
these days was called a " hahnsum kerridg." 

The last square-top chaise that was seen in Oxford belonged 
to Charles Sigourney, Esq., of Hartford, Ct., who visited the 
place with Mrs. Sigourney many years since. The harness was 
silver mounted and attracted, it was said by the villagers, more 
attention than the distinguished guests. 

Have you heard of the wonderful one hoss shay ? 

We are told they were made of " the strongest oak that could 
not be split nor bent nor broke." 

" For the wheels were just as strong as the thills, 
And the floor was just as strong as the sills, 
And the panels just as strong as the floor, 
And the Whipple tree neither less nor more. 
And the back cross bar as strong as the fore, 
And the spring and axle and hub encore." 

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

Before the Revolution there were vehicles used in Boston at 
an early date resembling " English road carts," which made so 
much racket by rattling and pounding through the streets they 
were called " homespun thunder carriages."* 



* In Oxford in olden time there were very few of these vehicles. On 
Sunday, or some special occasion, Edward Davis, Esq., appeared in a 
" one hoss shay " and also his townsmen, Josiah Wolcott, Esq., and James 
Butler, all attracting much observation. There was a prejudice against 
them as they represented certain caste distinction of long ago. It is 
said that a worthy man in Worcester took an elderly friend of his to 
church in his chaise. He had just arrived at the church door when a 
prominent citizen of the upper class of that period thus accosted him. 



Taverns and Post-offices. 273 

Prior to the Revolution is stjled ancient time, and very 
few if any, private coaches were used in this country. All 
travel was confined to horseback riding, and the equipments 
were styled the furniture of the horse. When Gen. Washing- 
ton received his family coach from London it was spoken of as 
an item of interest throughout the country. Coaches were not 
common at this early date. 

It was not uncommon for travelers in these day to take 
their own provisions with them, and to request the hostess of 
an inn to furnish them in the waitinor-room with cookiner uten- 
sils to prepare their luxuries for the table. The tea and 
coffee, with pickled or spiced meats, old fashioned, nice bread, 
would soon be served and with rich pies, cakes and preserves, 
gave to all an appearance of comfort. The landlord was com- 
pensated for this trouble in the settlement of the bill or for 
any extras furnished to his guests. 

The horses of travelers v/ere stabled, the private coachman 
and the driver of a freight team ordered and superintended all 
for the comfort of their tired animals, many times furnishing 
their own grain. At this time most inland freight was carried 
by horses, and then there was excitement at the village inns 
when the stage coach carrying the mails and passengers would 

with a vehemence of protest that made his shirt ruffles quiver: " Fiue 

times we are coming to, fine times, Mr. E , when mechanics ride 

to meeting in chaises." 

But in the present time mechanics and artisans enjoy all there is of 
the luxuries of life, and through their skill and energy we all share them 
and to them Worcester owes her unrivalled success in population and 
wealth. 

Very soon these gentlemen with their " pleasure carriages, " as they were 
termed, were followed by General Learned and Joseph Hudson. There 
are those of Mr. Hudson's descendants that can at the present time recall 
in their early childhood seeing Madam Hudson in her "square-top 
chase " riding down Long hill [Federal hillj with her milk white horse 
noted for his fat and sleek condition the country around. 

35 



274 Tfu Records of Oxford. 

roll bv at regular interval?, then the onlv vehicle of public 
conveyance, and stage loads stopping to dine. Bat the rail- 
roads of the present time have diverted all this travel and busi- 
ness into new channels. The stage coaches have left the high 
wavs. Sometimes in the depth of winter there would be 
much excitement at the village inn by the arrival of a sleigh- 
ing party for the evening dance and sometimes by travelers 
in sleighs jonrneying to visit their friends in the new settle- 
ments of Vermont and other parts of northern New Eng- 
land. 

This old South Tavern of Oxford for more than one hundred 
years was the center of all communication with the outside 
world and the life of the neighborhood. 

Here the balls and the junketings of the olden time were held 
in an apartment being lighted with candles which would have 
ordinarily furnished only a dim light if not for the ample chim- 
ney with its cheerful wood fire. 

Here were assembled the yonng ladies with dresses of ex- 
tremely short waists, and hair dressed a la Grecque, with their 
low stately conrtesy. 

And the young gentlemen in silk stockings with shoe and 
knee buckles, their queues laced with ribbons, and with rolling 
coat collars and high shirt collars half covering the face. 
These balls were of freqnent occnrrence. There was the 
election ball in ]^ay. The Thanksgiving ballj the Christmas 
ball, and one on St. John's day, when the tables were in rustic 
bowers, then the Masonic lodge figured largely, and on the 
settlement of a new clergyman an ordination ball wonld be 
annoimced. 

The gentlemen will please choose their partners. There was 
bowing and conrtesying and the dancing commenced, minuets. 
reels and jigs went on. 



Taverns and Post-offices. 275 

'' But from the parlor of the inn 
A pleasant murmur smote the ear. 
Like water rushing through a weir : 
Of t .interrupted by the din 
Of laughter and of loud applause, 
And in each intervening pause, 
The music of a violin. 

'' Before the blazing fire of wood 
Erect the wrapt musician stood ; 
And ever and anon he bent 
His head upon his instrument, 
And seemed to listen, till he caught 
Confessions of its secret thought, 
The joy, the triumph, the lament. 
The exultation and the pain ; 
Then by the magic of his art, 
He soothed the throbbings of his heart. 
And lulled it into peace again." 

— Longfellow. 

It would appear that a tavern in Oxford occupied the 
site or was the south part of the present residence of the 
late Jasper Brown, Esq., at the junction of one of the ancient 
roads to Charlton, with the Boston road through Marlborough 
and Worcester to Connecticut, which being en route one mile 
nearer Worcester, interrupted much of the patronage of quiet 
travelers from Boston to Connecticut. 

" As ancient is this hostelry 
As any in the land may be, 
Built in the old Colonial day. 
When men lived in a grander way, 
With ampler hospitality: 

" A kind of old Hobgoblin Hall, 
Now somewhat fallen to decay, 
With weather stains upon the wall. 
And stairways worn, and crazy doors, 
And creaking and uneven floors, 
And chimneys huge, and tiled and tall. 



276 The Records of Oxford. 

" Round this old-fashioned, quaint abode, 
Deep silence reigned, save when a gust, 
Went rushing down the country road, 
And skeletons of leaves and dust, 
A moment quickened by its breath, 
Shuddered and danced their dance of death, 
And through the ancient oaks o'er head 
Mysterious voices moaned and fled." — Longfellow. 

The Time and Manner of Traveling and Sending Communi- 
cations FR(jM Boston to Sutton in 1746 as Contrasted with 
the Same in 1890. 

From ilecords of Sigourney Family, Anthony Sigourney of 
Boston, was married to Mary Waters of Salem, April 11, 1740. 
Mrs. Sigourney was an invalid from consumption. Her physician 
named change to the country hoping for her recovery. Mrs. Si- 
gourney left Boston for Sutton where resided her brother, 
Kichard Waters. She soon became too ill to venture a return 
to l^osioii. She survived until winter, 1746. Previously to her 
decease a message was despatciied to Boston to acquaint Mr. 
Sigourney wiih the circumstances. No answer was received. 
The roads were impassable from the deep he.ivy snows. The 
funeral services were postponed for two weeks or more, until 
it was decided there could be no longer any delay from the 
abcCiice of Mr. Sigourney, During the services he arrived. 
Having been unable to proceed from saddle-horses furnished 
him, he had walked most of the distance from Boston to Sutton, 
by tiie aid of snow-shoes or rackets. Mrs. Sigourney was buried 
in the burying-ground belonging to the Waters, Goff and 
Putnam families, in Sutton, no head-stone, only stone marks. 

James Davie Butler on leaving Oxford and becoming a resi- 
dent of Rutland, Yt, in the year 1787. 

His first iournevs to and fro were on horseback with a bag 
of silver on the pommel of the saddle, but he soon accomplished 
his journeys by driving a pair of horses in this new section of 



Taverns and Post-offices. 277 

country as it was then termed. He was a merchant of the 
town for fifty years. 

" Honored Sir — After Due respect to you and your family 
this opportunity presents itself though (unexpectedly) to inform 
you that we are all well & throu the protection of a mersefuU 
God we have been so for a year past. 

" I have nothing metearial to write at present we have not 
heard aney inteliageable acount from 
you since we left oxford &, I wish you to write a letter 
& leve at Cambels for M^ Cudworth to fetch to me. 

" That we may know wheather you are all alive or not. We 
remember our love to our honored mother & all the family 
& our friends in general. 

So we Remain your afectionate &c. 

" Jacob Glysson.* 

"Greenbush, December 21, 1805. 

" 4 miles north of the village of Troy. 

" N. B. — We live within 200 yards of the church where we 
can have Dutch and English preaching a very steadoy set of 
people to go to meeting and the quer of it is we can have our 
children Baptized for two shillings per head. But I chuse to 
keep that money to pay the school master for they go stedy 
and learn well. They all Remember their Love to cousins. 

Traveling West in 1817. 
Anthony Butler, son of James Butler of Oxford, Mass., in a 
series of wayside letters to his brother James of Rutland, Yt., 

* Jacob Gleason, son of Dr. James Gleason, of Oxford South Gore, 
born July, 1768, died at Stockton, N. Y., October, 1812, married 
Mahatable, daughter of Joseph Hudson. Their address, " On the 
Grants in New York State. "Mrs. Gleason, born 1770, died at Stockton, 
1871. On leaving Greenbuah, N. Y., he removed with his family to the 
"Holland Purchase," a part of the Chatauqua county, south-western 
part of New York . 



278 The Records of Oxford. 

describes his travels en route from his hmded estate a few miles 
distant from Rutland to Cincinnati. 

The outfit consisted of two large wagons, one single wagon 
and five horses. Mr. Butler Avith his family leaves his home 
in Vermont Sept. 30, 1817, and arrives at Cincinnati, November 
14, after traveling fifty-six days. Three of his letters were 
mailed at Montgomery, Orange Co., N. Y., Oct. 10, Loudoun, 
Franldin Co., Pa., Oct. 23, and Pittsburgh, Nov. 12. In his 
letter from Loudoun Mr. Butler states: " The reason for pro- 
ceeding so far south is to cross the Alleghany Mountains on a 
turnpike." He adds, " Our horses are in good style." 

In crossing Laurel Ridge, three miles up and four miles 
down, he found no house, and camped on the summit. In his 
own words " built a fire against a log, daughters dismayed, night 
dark and rainy, both dogs on the watch till morning." " De- 
scending the Laurel Ridge, the roads from the heavy rain were 
almost impassable, the loose rock worn by wagon wheels and 
horses' feet 10 or 12 and perhaps 15 feet. One horse path three 
feet lower than the other — at times the horses going frantic with 
rage. We descended without accident and reached a tavern 
before night. 

" In the vicinity of Pittsburgh, the horses requiring rest, we 
changed our mode of traveling at Pittsburgh to proceed on to 
Cincinnati. I purchased a boat for $60, with a deck, fireplace, 
and other conveniences large enough for to transport ourselves, 
wagons and horses, and was so fortunate as to secure a good 
pilot (a man who had been a ship carpenter and a seaman on 
board a man of war), and we arrived safely at Cincinnati 500 
miles from Pittsburgh." 

Anthony Butler was a Mason, and thus Avrites : "In the 
neighborliood of Pittsburgh I became acquainted with John 
Grove, the landlord at whose public house we were entertained, 
I showed him the certificate which Captain Lord had handed 
me from the Royal Arch Chapter. He went into the city and 



Taverns and Post-offices. 279 

on his return told me there were $300 in Pittsburgh at ray ac- 
ceptance, and quarters for me and my family in some of their 
best houses, if I would accept the favor, as my traveling ex- 
penses were considered very great. I accepted with thanks 
the kindness of the gentlemen (Masons) of Pittsburgh, but as- 
sured them I had provided for an expensive journey and for 
winter quarters, and would in the spring receive remittances 
from Vermont to purchase a landed estate in the State of Ohio. 

POST-IIOUSES AND PoST-ElDEKS. 

' ' Hark ! 'tis the twanging horn ! " 

"He comes, the herald of a noisy world, 
With sjjatter'd boots, strapp'd waist, and frozen locks, 
News from all nations lumbering at his back. 
True to his charge, the close-pack'd load behind, 
Yet careless what he brings, his one concern * 
Is to conduct it to the destined inn ; 
And having dropp'd the expected bag pass on." — Gowikt. 

Eeminiscences of the Late Akchibald Campbell. 
Oxford became a post-town in 1801. Samuel Campbell 
was the first " post-master " of Oxford. The post-house was 
at the hotel on the corner of the Charlton road and the villaf'-e 
street (the present site of the brick store). Major Archibald 
Campbell was the second post-master, at his residence on the 
site of the present Episcopal church, Main street. William 
Sigourney was Maj. Campbell's deputy of the office. One 
small left-hand drawer in an ancient English desk devoted to 
the purpose, contained all the letters, papers and mail matter 
of the Oxford post-house. Maj. Campbell was succeeded by 
William Sigourney. The post-house was then removed to the 
old tannery on the Sutton road near the bridge, occupying the 
currying room. The post-office was then removed to a new 
store on Sigourney corner, and Capt. William Sigourney was 
the post-master for many years. 



28o The Records of Oxford. 

" In olden time the post was carried by a messenger pro- 
vided with a spare horse, a horn and good portmantles." 

" In 1704, the only post on all this continent was that which 
went east from New York so far as Boston, and west to Phila- 
delphia." 

" The mails were conveyed from one town to another by the 
postman w^ho traveled over the hills and through the valleys on 
horseback, and made known his approach once a week to each 
post-village by the winding of a huge horn, which was always 
carried ready for use." The Aveekly post-rider, when he 
came by, was sure to tarry at the village inn a sufficient 
time not only to distribute whatever papers and letters (and 
few and far between they were) which he might have to 
leave there, but also to report such rumors as he might have 
collected by the way ; "for post haste" was with him by no 
means a descriptive term. In government dispatches, the 
landlord at the village tavern had the first and surest news in 
days when armed horsemen did the work now performed by 
railroad and telegraph. Eager with impatience everybody 
rushed for the news to the village tavern, and there with a bowl 
of punch or a mug of flip listened to the last report left behind 
by some galloping rider, waiting for a fresh steed to take him 
for a new relay. 

Mr. Campbell states, Major Daniel Mansfield, it is said, was 
the first regular mail carrier from "Worcester through Millbury, 
Sutton, Oxford, and Dudley on to Ashford, Ct., about the years 
1810-12. 

Previously to this time letters were sent from Worcester in 
packets to the towns in the vicinity by reliable parties, who were 
requested to forward them to the inn of the town, and there 
they were distributed or left to persons to whom they were 
addressed en route. 

So slow was the news in reaching Oxford of what transpired 
in the outside world, that in 1813, when Washington was burnt, 



Taverns and Post-offices. 28 1 

some ten days elapsed before the news was received. William 
Eaton, a sheriff, arrived at tlie hotel and gave the intelligence. 
Mr. Campbell, then a child, listened to the announcement. 

In 1815 the glad tidings of peace between Great Britain and 
the United States were received througliont the country with 
acclamations of joy. Heralds on horseback with government des- 
patches were welcomed by loud peals of bells whenever they 
entered towns or villages. The citizens of Oxford were wit- 
nesses to the scene of the government despatch sent from 
Washington to Boston passing through Dudley and on the old 
Dudley road to Oxford. The horse who bore the rider and 
despatches was covered with foam and blood, and as he reached 
the several towns en route for a relay bringing the news he 
sounded his horn and cried with a loud voice " Peace — Peace 
— Peace !" 

Tidings of this treaty reached the United States little more 
than a month after the battle of New Orleans.* 

Abner Cooper was one of the early post-riders between 
Worcester and Oxford. 

" When Cooper the post-carrier weekly arrived in Oxford 
on horseback with saddle bags containing tlie weekly papers 
& (letters) from Worcester, on reaching Towne's pond, a little 
passed the residence of Dr. Daniel Fiske nearly opposite an 
oak tree near the potash mound he would sound his horn that 
people of the north vilage might arrive at the inn and receive 
the news." 

Mr. Cooper's card in the Worcester Spy : 

"Abner Coojjer informs his friends that April next his 
quarter ends." 

An elderly lady being inquired of respecting posting letters 
in the olden time, replied " We only sent communications to 

*From the Worcester S'pij, Wednesday, February 15, 1815: 
" When the news of peace reached this town Monday last, it was re- 
ceived by all with the utmost transj)orts of joy. " 
36 



282 TJie Records of Oxford. 

our friends, or letters of business by reliable persons who were 
travelling to that section of country where they resided, and 
of course waited a long time for letters iu return." * 

In tliese days stage coaches were used, but a greater speed 
was reached by tliose who traveled " post," as it was called ; 
that is, by relays of horses that were frequently changed. 

The President's message was conveyed in this manner, ex- 
press riders affording great interest to the inhabitants of the 
several towns through wliich it passed. 

Among the last of tliese village excitements in Oxford. The 
bearer of the " President's message " had failed of his relay at 
his last stopping place (Dudley), and proceeding on the old 
Dudley road before reaching Oxford, his horse, already 
over driven, was becoming exhausted. When a mile from 
the village hotel, near the residence of the late Peter Shum- 
way, he observed a farmerf leading with a bridle a very able 
nice horse crossing the road, intently observing the move- 
ments of the expi'ess sans ccremonie. The rider came along- 
side, and leaped upon the farmer's horse and was with his spurs 
soon out of sight with his fresh relay. As soon as the farmer 
recovered from his consternation he pursued and found his 
own horse safe at the hotel with a sutficient remuneration. 

It is said the arrival and departure of the Boston uKiil coach 
in Oxford was the event of the day more than one half century 
ago. The driver always wound his horn on the Boston road 
just after passing the bridge east of the street. 

The coach was known to be approaching about sunset by the 
bugle horn in the distance. As heralds of the approaching 
coach a group of children would be seen about sunset on the vil- 
lage street or a deep lawn, all at once exclaiming, "There comes 
the Boston coach ! Don't you see it on the Sutton road ? " as the 
four horses and the great lumbering vehicle are outlined against 

* Late Mrs. Francis Sibley of Oxford, aged 93 years iu 1884. 
tLate Jonas Learned. 



Taverns and Post-offices. 283 

the green hedge that borders the old Boston post-iroad on either 
side of the liighway. 

The coach soon ascends " Sigournej hill," as the rising of the 
ground after crossing the little bridge was called in those days. 
And the panting horses with distended nostrils rush forward 
at full speed, the driver sounds his horn for to give notice of 
his expected arrival at the post-office and the village inn to have 
all in readiness, and cracks his whip, tightens his grasp on the 
reins, and with loud chittering of hoofs and rumbling of wheels, 
the heavilj-laden coach with its passengers passes Sigourney 
corner, burying the brick mansion house beneath a dusty cloud. 
The country people gathered at the tavern to see the cum- 
bersome vehicle as it came swinging around at the entrance of 
the Sutton road with the horses galloping in coach horse 
fashion. After a short stop for passengers, mail, or may be 
for a little refreshment "from mine host," the horn tooted 
loudly, and away the heavy old-fashioned yellow stage coach 
jolted and swung along the level street, with the driver so 
friendly to all persons he passed. 

Though the arrival of the coach from Boston was an occur- 
rence three times during the week, returning on the alternate 
days, the excitement attending its arrival never lost its charm 
for old or young. 

Many years have now passed away since the mail coaches 
were to be seen in the village streets. They were drawn by 
four horses. Sometimes a change was made en route of coaches 
and coaclimen, as well as of horses. 

The coachmen were usually men of very obliging dispositions. 
They would go out of their way to bear a message to some 
shop or dressmaker for to please their lady patrons or leave a 
newspaper. They did much of the business that is now done 
by the express companies. 

One lady relates that when she was traveling in the moun- 
tains of Vermont the coachman would gather her wild flowers, 



284 The Records of Oxford. 

and bronglit her some petted raccoons or " Vertnont kittens," as 
lie termed them, for her amusement at the pnbh'c liouse when 
waiting for a fresh relay. 

The Norwich and Worcester railroad is unlaid. The citizens 
of this quaint village may be seen at early evening waiting at 
the post-office for the arrival of the Boston mail coach to re- 
ceive their weekly newspapers and letters. Daily papers were 
not to be found in inland country towns. 

Yery few persons in Oxford received a newspaper in those 
days by the post-man. The Boston News-Letter was the paper 
most read in the country before the War of the Revolution, 
for modern time is said to have commenced with the Revo- 
lution. In this paper, " All valuable Real Estate and Slaves 
were advertised for sale, with the deaths of noted person- 
ages, and Servants, Runaways, or Goods Stole or Lost may have 
the same inserted at a reasonable Rate; from Twelve Pence to 
Five Shillings, and not to exceed : Who may agree with Nich- 
olas Boone for the same at his shop, next door to Major 
Davis's; Apothecary, in Boston, near the Old Meetinghouse." 

" All persons in Town and Country may have said News-Let- 
ter Weekly upon reasonable terms, agreeing with John Camp- 
bell Post Master, (Boston,) for the same." In Revolutionary 
time and afterward the Massachusetts Spy was the newspaper 
most appreciated throughout the country. 

An advertisement in the Boston News-Letter^ in August, 
1742 : " A negro woman to be sold by the printer of this 
paper; the vei-y best negro woman in town, — who has had the 
small-pox, and the measles, — is as healthy as a horse, — as brisk 
as a bird, and will work like a beaver." 

" At last the floundering carrier bore 

The village paper to our door." 
'' Welcome to us its week old news." 
" Its corner for tlie rustic Muse, 

Its monthly gauge of snow and rain, 



Churches. 285 

Its record, miugling in a breath 

The wedding knell and dirge of death, 

Jest, anecdote and love-lorn tale, 

The latest culprit sent to jail: 

Its hue and cry of stolen and lost, 

Its vendue sales and goods at cost, 

And traffic calling loud for gain." — Whittier. 



CHAPTER XXL 



Churches. 
The first town meeting, July 22, 1713. By warrant from 
John Chandler, Esquire, one of her Majesty's justices of the 
peace for the county of Suffolk, for the clioice of town officers. 
It was then voted that three persons should be chosen for 
selectmen for the present year. 
Chose John Town, \ 

BenoniTwitchel, >• Selectmen. 
Joseph Chamberlain, ) 
John Town, For Town Clerk, 

Thomas Huskins, " Constable, 

Oliver Collier, " Highway Surveyor, 

Abiel Lamb, '' Tything-Man."^' 

All of whom were sworn before John Chandler, justice of 
peace. 

*The office of Tything-men was conferred only on those persons who 
were of most respectable character, and such as possessed great dignity 
of manner ; their badge of office was a long black staff. They were ex- 
pected to be constant attendants at church, and to see that all persons 
who were in attendance should be seated before the church service com- 
menced. All traveling and labor were prohibited by law; and that he 
would also, by virtue of his office " have an eye " upon all absentees 
from church. 

Tything-men were chosen in Oxford for the benefit of the people into 
the present century. 



286 The Records of Oxford. 

In the record of town officers tliere were tything-men, deer- 
reeves, " clerk of the market," It is difficult to conceive of the 
necessity of a clerk of the market in a place where none pur- 
chased and few sold any commodities, and yet these various 
offices were filled for a great many years after the incorpora- 
tion of the town. 

Another officer who was chosen annually for many years, 
but though a State officer, is now discontinued, was a " warden." 
The only explanation of this office '*' that coming from England 
the English wished to maintain the same customs here as at 
home." 

Town Meeting, November 19, 1713, Yoted : "That John 
Towne, Samuel Hageburn and Benjamin Chamberlain, should 
be a committee to lay out a Minister's lot and burying- 
place." 

Town Meeting, July 29, 1714, Voted : " That each lot man 
shall pay his equal proportion of ten shillings a Sabbath, for a 
quarter of a year, to Mr. John James, for his preaching with 
us." 

July 29, 1714, Yoted : " to build a meeting house thirty 
feet square, and to set the house on the west side of the high- 
way, near Twitcheirs field. 

At a Great and Gen. Court of Assembly for 3^' province of 
y' Massachusetts bay in New England begun and held at bos- 
ton on y' 28 day of may 1718. 

On the petition of John Towne select man of the Town of 
Oxford in behalf of y' said town In the hous of Representatives 
June the 18th 1718 Red and ordered that y' select men or 
assessors, of y' Town of Oxford be Impowered to Levy a 
tax upon y' lands of y' non Resident proprietors In the 
said Town after the Rates of tM^enty Shillings p annum on 
Each Thousand acres during the whole term of five years 
next after this present Session That so the Inhabitants may 
be Enabled to build a meeting house and settle a minister 



C/iiU'chcs. 287 

among Them and tlie money so arising shall be applied accord- 
ingly and no otherwise. 
In Council Kead and concurred Consented to 

Sam. U. Suute 
a True Copy as of Record 

Examined p 

J. WiLLARD 

Secry. 

Page 18 of Record. 

From the Oxford Records, March 2, 1 719. Voted that if the 
Rev. John McKinstry dos continue preaching the Gospil and 
settle M'itli us yt lie shall be an Equal Rropi'ietor with the rest 
of the inhabitants of Oxford village. 

May 27, 1719. Voted to give to Mr. McKinstry sixty pounds 
sallery and fifty pounds in building and fencing and breaking 
up ground and labor and 100 acres of land. 

Mr. ]\IcKinstry, however, did not comply with the invita- 
tions, tradition states, to the great disappointment of the peo- 
ple. 

Rev. John McKinstry, a native of Scotland, joined a com- 
pany of Scotch emigrants from the north of Ireland and ar- 
rived in Boston in the summer of 1718. 

Mr. McKinstry is said to have been a gentleman of a supe- 
rior education, and of great natural endowments, with refined 
manners and of a genial temperament of character. He became 
the clergyman of the church in Sutton and subsequently of 
East "W^indsor, Ct. 

He had graduated at Edinburgh University and received a 
diploma. 

A Translation. 
" Be it known to all whom it may concern, that we the Pro- 
fessors of the University of Edinboro' of King James, testify 
that this youth John J^IcKinstry, of Ireland, after having com- 



288 TJie Records of Oxford. 

pleted tlie study of pliilosophy and liuraan literature with the 
integrity and modesty of manners wliich is becoming an in- 
genious youtli, has graduated with ns, and is entitled to all the 
privileges which the course of discipline and the custom of this 
Academy, is accustomed to confer. And now with the con- 
sent of the Facult}'- and teachers of this college he is declared 
a Master in the liberal Arts, and entitled to all the privileges 
which are wont to be conceded to the Masters of the Good 
Arts, of which fact, that there may be greater faith, we the 
/ distinguished governors, Teachers and Patrons of tlie Univer- 

sity of Edinburgh have placed our signatures this 4th Calends 
of March, 1712." 
Datum Edinburgi. 

^ Joil. GOODALL, L. S. P. 

RoBERTus Henderson, 

B. & Acad, ab. Archivi, 
GuLiEL Hamilton, N, S. P. 
GuLiELMus Law, P. P, 
GuLiELMUs Scot, P, P, 

KOBERTUS StOUAOL, P. P, 

Col. Drumond, P. P, 
Ja, Gregory, Math. P. 

May 1720, att a town meeting, " They voted that Mr. John 
Campbell, should be treated with in order to settlement." 
"Then voted Mr. Israel Town, who resided on the Dr. Pisk 
farm, opposite Towne's pond, should entertain the minister." 

Rev, John Campbell, the first clergyman of the church in 
Oxford, was from Scotland, having graduated at Edinburgh 
University. At a Town meeting in May, 1720, Mr. John 
Campbell's arrival in Oxford is first mentioned. At the above 
date Ebenezer Learned is authorized by a vote of the town to 
make an engagement with Pev. John Campbell, for to remain 
with them as their clergyman for one or two months. 



Churches. 



289 



July 15, 1720, a committee of five, of which Joiin Town was 
chairman, was chosen and instructed to make definite proposals 
to Mr. Campbell in reference to his settlement. The committee 
presented the following report : 

In the name of the inhabitants of the town : 

Ist. We called the Rev. John Campbell to be our minister. 

2d. We promised to the said Mr. Campbell £60 salary. 
^ 3d. That tlie Rev. Mr. Campbell himself, his heirs, and as- 
signs have freely given them the lot already laid out for the 
first minister of Oxford, with the rights thereunto belonging, 
and one hundred acres joining the above, if it can be had ; if not 
when it can be conveniently had. 

4th. That we will give the said Mr. Campbell one hundred 
pounds settlement in work, as reasonable as others have work 
for the money in Oxford; twenty-five pounds of it to be paid 
quarterly as sliall be directed by Mr. Campbell, provided he 
shall be willing to live and die with us in the work of the 
ministry. 

Rev. Mk. Campbell's Answer to the Selectmen of 

Oxford. 

Gentlemen, I have had your call and proposals before me 
and upon mature deliberation I accept of your call and pro- 
posals to me as propounded and hereby promise to be willing 
to continue with you in the work of the mirristry as the Lord 
shall enable me, provided you continue a ministerial people. 

Oxford, Angust 12/A, 1720. 

JOHN CAMPBELL. 

In September, 1720, Lieut. John Town, AbielLamb, Samuel 
Barton and Joseph Wiley, gentlemen, united in their influence 
to establish a Church of Christ in Oxford, making an appoint- 
ment to meet on Thursday, October 27, at four of the o'clock 
post meridian, at the house of Israel Town. 
37 



290 The Records of Oxfords 

In 1720 the town authorities of Oxford applied to the asso- 
ciation of ministers for their advice respecting Rev. John 
Campbell as a clergyman. 

The association replied : 

Woodstock, September 7, 1720. 
" We the subscribers, having had acquaintance with the Rev. 
Mr. Campbell now of Oxford, do approve of him as a minister 
endowed with ministerial accomplishments. We hope and be- 
lieve that, by the blessing of Heaven, he will serve to the glory 
of God and the spiritual edification of souls, in the place 
where Divine Providence shall fix him in the gospel ministry. 
(Signed.) 

JOSIAH DWIGHT. JOSEPH BAXTER. 

JOHN SWIFT. ROBERT BRECK. 

JOHN PRENTICE. JOSEPH DORR. 

" To the select men of Oxford. 

The church* was organized Jan. 20, 1720, O. S., with the 
following members : 

John Town and wife, Israel Town and wife, 

Benj. Chamberlain and wife, Benony Twitchell and wife, 

Isaac Learned and wife, Joseph Wiley and wife, 

John Comins and wife, Samuel Barton and wife, 

Absolem Skinner, David Town and wife, 

Ebenezer Learned and wife, Nat. Chamberlain and wife, 

Philip Amidown and wife, Thomas Gleason, Jr., and wife, 

Abiel Lamb and wife, Collins Moore and wife. 



* This church adopted no creed at its formation. In the early history 
of our country articles of belief were promulgated by the higher ecclesi- 
astical bodies, and the Cambridge platform served most of the Congre- 
gational churches until near the close of the last century, when, on ac- 
count of a diversity of opinions, articles of faith in the form of a creed 
were then introduced to be assented to by those becoming members of 
the church. 



Churches. 291 

The ordination services of Rev. John Campbell were March 
1, 1721, and were as follows : 

Introductorj' prayer, by Rev. Joseph Dorr, of Mendon. 

Sermon, by Rev. John Prentice, Lancaster, Ephs. vi, 18-19. 

Prayer before the Charge, by Rev. Josiah Dwight, of 
Woodstock. 

Charge, by Rev. Joseph Baxter, of Medlield. 

Prayer after Charge, by Rev. Joseph Breck, Malborongh. 

Right Hand of Fellowship, by Rev. John Swift of Fram- 
ingham. 

Benediction, by Rev. John Campbell. 

The first church in Oxford was located on the north-west 
corner of tbe soutii common, the old Charlton road separating 
it from the burying-gromid. It fronted on the south toward the 
common. It was thirty feet square ; had double or folding doors 
in front ; the pulpit was on the north side of the house op- 
posite the doors which opened into the aisle of the church ; 
the gallery extended on the east and west sides. The seats in 
the area of the church were of rude construction, with backs, 
those upon the east side for ladies, and those upon the west 
side for gentlemen ; this was a Puritan fashion of New Eng- 
land. 

January, 1722-3, "Voted in ye affirmative that Capt. Rich- 
ard Moore may build and have set up a pew on ye west side 
of ye pulpit of about six foot square for the benefit of himself 
and his family." * * * 

Feby 11 1722-3, At a town meeting legally warned voted to 
grant a pew to be made for Mr. Campbell and dispose of other 
places for pews First voted in the affirmative yt Mr. Campbell 
may build and set up a pew of y' East side of y pulpit from y 
pulpit to y middle or senter of ye post under y gallery beam 
extending to y' corner of y' deacons seat to be done at y charge 
of y town. 



292 The Records of Oxford. 

Marcli 29, 1724, At the town meeting it was voted that 
Eng° Ehenezer Learned should have a Room in the East cor- 
ner of the meeting-house joyning to Mr. Campbell's pew for 
a pew for him and his family in the meeting house and he is 
to finisli it in the year. 

March 4 1734, Yoted yt Capt Ehenezer Learned shall have 
ye pew on the Easterly part of y meeting house behind ye wo- 
man's seats for Toon (ten) pound paying his equal propor- 
tions towards finishing said meeting house sd pew adjoyniug 
to the duble doors. 

March 4 1734, Voted that Mr. Samuel Davis shall have ye 
pew on the Westerly sid of ye meeting house adjoyning to the 
duble doors he paying toon pound and his equal proportion 
towards finishing sd meeting house. 

May 16, 1726, At a legal town meeting, Capt. Ebenezer 
Learned was cliosen to go to ye General Court, at a petition 
Requesting that the lands of ye non-resident proprietors, may 
be taxed, to inable us to support ye Gospel ministry amongs us. 

Oxford, September 4th 1732, "Then Received in full for 
my sallery from the beginning of my Settlement at Oxford, in 
y' work of ye Gospels, there to the first of May, one thousand 
seven hundred and twenty-seven in conformity, to a vote passed 
by the said Town of Oxford," March 6, 1726-7, per me. John 
Campbell. 

^The duty of the sexton in olden time was not only to take 
charge of the church, keep it swept, have the key in his posses- 
sion, but to take care of the cushion for the desk. 

August 29, 1728, Voted " to take so much of the Interest 
money belonging to y' town to procure a cushion for the pulpit. 
Capt. Earned, to be intrusted with the commission." 

March 4, 1734. Voted yt (/apt. Richard Moore, shall have 
Liberty to inlarge his pew at his own charge and bearing y cost 
of turning y pulpit stair-case if Mr, Campbell be willing, and 
make a door for y deacons seat. 



Churches. 293 

March 4, 1734, Yoted Lieut. Isaac Learned, shall have y 
pew at the North East corner of the meeting-house, joyning to 
Mr. Campbells pew, paying four pound and bearing his pro- 
portion towards finishing said meeting-house. 

August 25, 1743, the town voted to build a new meeting- 
house, which was erected 1747. 

July 13, 1748, Yoted that the Town shall Build Two Pews 
one on Each Side the Broad Alley, one behind the men's seats 
and the other behind the women's seats to accommodate the 
Gentlemen that have had their Land Taxed towards Building 
of our New meeting-house, wlien any of them shall come to 
our meeting, 

Yoted that there shall be two pews more built to take up 
the rest of the room behind the seats to the alleys at each end 
of the seats to be disposed of by the town. In front of the 
pulpit were four long narrow pews, two for the deacons, the 
others for aged persons. The gallery extended round three 
sides of the church, leaving the high pulpit on the north side ; 
seats back of the galleries in the corners of the church were 
devoted to slaves or colored servants, 

August 22, 1748, Yoted Richard Moore, Jun, Collector to 
gather the tax laid on the non-resident Proprietors lands in 
Oxford, towards building our new meeting-house by an act of 
the General Court. 

May 17, 1750. Yoted one hundred and ten ounces of silver 
and other money equivalent, to it for the Rev. Mr. Campbell's 
sallery for this present year. 

Sept. 14, 1752, Yoted to choose a committee to Dignify and 
prize the Pews. Mr, David Baldwin, Mr. Duncan Campbell, 
Mr. Benjamin Davis, Committee Men to Dignify and Prize 
the pews. 

The person who paid the highest tax had the first clioice, and 
80 in succession. In many places other than money considera- 
tions had influence in " dignifying " the pews. 



294 The Records of Oxford. 

Sept. 14, 1752 (N. S.), Voted to accept the report of the 
committee that was chosen to Dignify and prize the Pews. 

Nov. 17, 1752, Voted that the pew next to tlie Pulpit on the 
East side shall be the minister's pew. Then those that were 
the highest in the Rates for their Real Estate towards building 
our meeting-house in Oxford proceeded to draw their pews, and 
Col. Ebenezer Learned being highest in said Rates, chose No. 
3 price £52 16s. 

It is believed that the term " dignify," as here used, was to 
give the preference in the selection of pews to those persons 
most distinguished in public affairs, and for their liberality in 
furnishing the means for the erection of the church and the 
support of public worship. 

The " pew spots," as they were called, that is, places where 
pews might be, were thus disposed of as the society had digni- 
fied them. In the Town Warrant, Oct. 4, 1748 — To see how 
the town will dispose of the Pew Spots in the said meeting- 
house. In these old-fashioned churches the people were not 
allowed to make their selection of seats. A committee was 
chosen to assign seats to the worshippers " according to estate 
and age annually." This arrangement of seats was termed 
" seating the meeting-house." 

March 20, 1764, Voted and chose Edward Davis, Esquire, 
(Capt.) Ebenezer Learned and Mr. Josiah Wolcott, committee 
to treat with the Rev"^. Joseph Bowman concerning his settling 
with us and to lay the votes and grants of the church and Town 
before him in view for his consideration and to give us his 
answer in due time, and the said committee are impowered to 
make some further proposals to the said Mr, Bowman con- 
cerning his settlement and sallary and report to the town the 
next town meeting. 

24 September 1764, Voted in the Affirmative to Add Sixty 
Six Pounds thirteen Shillings and four Pence to a former Grant 
made to Rev. Mr. Joseph Bowman on the 20'^'' Day of March 



Churches. 295 

1764, of One Hundred and Thirty-three Founds Six Shillings 
and Eiglit pence making in the whole Two Hundred Pounds 
to be Paid, the one-half within One year after his settling with 
us, in case he accepts of our Choice of him to be our Minister 
and settle with us. 

March 20, 1764, voted & chose Edward Davis, Col. Ebenezer 
Learned, Josiah Wolcott, a committee. 

Warrant October 1, 1764. To grant Money to defray the 
cost and charge of the ordinations or installment of the Rev'd 
Mr. Joseph Bowman to the Pastoral Office among us October 
15, 1764.* 

Rev. Joseph Bowman remained the clergyman of this church 
until August, 1782. In 1791, April 17, Rev. Elias Dudley 
ucceeded the Rev. Joseph Bowman. Rev. Mr. Dudley retired 
from being the clergyman March 6, 1709. Dr. Emmons of 
Franklin preached the sermon at the ordination of Rev. Mr. 
Dudley. His residence while a clergyman in Oxford was the 
mansion of the late Dr. David Holman. 

In the present century there may have been connected with 
this church no clergyman more distinguished than Rev. Horatio 
Bardwell, D. D-, who was established over the church in 1 836 and 
so continued for many jears. He died in Oxford May 5, 1866. 
His memory is spoken of " as a precious legacy to his church." 
He received his ordination as a clergyman at Newburyport June 
21, 1815, and on the following October 23 he sailed for 
India in the ship Dryad^ and on his arrival in India he became 
a resident of Bombay, and remained as an American mission- 
ary in India until 1821, when he returned to this country. 
While in India, Dr. and Mrs. Bardwell received many kind 

* October 15, 1764. Edward Davis, Esq., and Deacon Thomas Davis 
undertook to provide Entertainment for the Council that are to install 
the Rev. Mr. Joseph Bowman to the pastoral office among us without 
making it a public charge to the town. 



296 The Records of Oxford. 

attentions from the English residents and from the officials of 
government. 

At one period during his home in India he was most honor- 
ably invited to take the place of a rector in the English Episco- 
pal church, which for a limited time he filled with much accept- 
ance to liis English friends. Mrs. Bardwell was a lady of a 
superior education, as could be discerned in her conversation, 
and in her extensive correspondence. Her description of her 
Eastern life, as associated witli English residents as well as the 
poor natives of the country, was in her recital as a picture pre- 
sented to the view. And like Mrs. Sherwood of England 
her description was to remain in a life long memory. 

One can easily follow Mrs. Bardwell in her Indian home, 
plainly dressed in white muslin, as ladies in India are obliged 
to dress from the climate, on her veranda, surrounded by a 
group of native children, teaching them their daily Bible lessons. 
On the return of Dr. and Mrs. Bardwell to America they de- 
parted from India with regret and with many kind services 
rendered them from the English governor.* 

Two mercliant vessels left India for Boston at the time of 
Dr. and Mrs. Bardwell's passage being engaged. One ship was 
lost at sea, and was so reported, and left much uncertainty as 
regarded the safety of Dr. and Mrs. Bardwell. On their arrival 
in port they hastened to their home in Andover. An escort 

* Dr. Bardwell was married in 1815 to Rachel, daughter of Simon For- 
busli, of Andover. 

Dr. Bardwell in his manners was courteous and affable, and was styled 
a gentleman in English society while abroad, as well as one who was 
distinguished in his judgment and views of the affairs of state govern- 
ment, and with all these endowments he was more distinguished for his 
most devout Christian life, and as a clergyman he was possessed of laro-e 
and liberal views toward all evangelical Christians. 

The Book of Common Prayer used by Dr. Bardwell in India is still 
cherished as a relic by Miss Ellen Paine, once a communicant in his 
church at Oxford, now Mrs, Gilchrist of McGregor. 



CJmrclics. 297 

was at once offered to accompany them to tlieir friends, who 
proceeded in advance, and announced the safe arrival of the ship 
and then the safety of Dr. and Mrs. Bard well and child, and 
their immediate arrival that morning to the parents of Mrs. 
Bardwell. 

%) May 17G5, Voted that Lieut. John Nichols and Mr. Ed- 
ward Raymond, shall each of them have the Liberty for two 
persons to sit in the Pew on the West side of the Broad Alley 
in our Meeting-House that was granted to the non Resident 
Gentlemen tliat had their unimproved lands Taxed towards 
Building our Meeting-House Each of them paying three Pounds 
old tenor pr year as long as they enjoy said privilege and to 
give place to any of Said Gentlemen if they should come to our 
meeting. 

That Mr. Josiah Wolcott shall have liberty to nse and im- 
prove the pew on the East side of the broad alley in our meet- 
ing-house tilling the said pew. 

May 19 1707, Then that behind the womans Seats next to the 
Broad Alley was set up and Lieut. John Nichols bid twelve 
pounds eight shillings lawful money which was the highest 
and it was struck off to him accordingly and he paid two dol- 
lars down. 

To see if the town will grant liberty to Rev. Mr. Hill 
and Mr. Amos Shumway and Mr. James Butler and Doct. 
Daniel Fisk, to take up the two hind seats in the mens and 
womens body seats iind build them four pews for their use and 
their heirs forever or act thereon as the town shall think proper. 

By order of the select men. SAMUEL HARRIS 

Oxford May 21 1781. Town Clerk. 

July 19, 1781, At a Town Meeting, received the Report of 
the committee chosen for the sale of the pew ground in the mens 
and womens body scats, and voted to accept said Report which 
is as" follows: 
38 



298 The Records of Oxford. 

JS[o. 1, on the woniaiis side of the broad allej, sold to Mr. 
Anthony Sigourny, for 20|^ hard dollars. 

No. 2, on tlie men's side of the broad alley, sold to Mr. James 
Butler, for 20 hard dollars. 

No. 3, on the womans side, on the cast side, sold Mr. John 
Dana, for 17 hard dollars. 

No. 4, on the west side of the men's seats, sold to Mr. Jesse 
Jones for 16^ hard dollars. 

Voted that the money cominuj by the sale of the four pews 
as before mentioned be applied for the support of the soldiers 
families and the poor of the town. 

In olden time in the churches of New England the sermon 
was made the principal feature of the service. The Scriptures 
were not read in the churches until the early part ^of tlie last 
century, and not always were prayers offered in the churches. 

As early as 1699, however, Eev. Mr. Coleman of Boston 
read the Bible in liis church, and he even repeated the Lord's 
prayer, after an introduction of one of his own. " But many 
were strongly prejudiced against his innovations." 

Heading of the Scriptures in the service of New England 
churches on the Sabbath, is comparatively modern. It was con- 
sidered in ancient time as partaicing too much of the formality 
of the English church — in many churches not introduced until 
the middle of the last century. 

The Ratio Disciplinae says that in 1726, that " the practice 
of reading the sacred volume was observed in many churches 
without giving offence." The church in Medford, in 1759, 
" voted to read the Bible in the congregation." How early 
reading of the Scriptures in tlie church in Oxford was adopted, 
there is no record.* 



* With things that have had their day during these long sermons, in 
some churches, there was an bour-glass standing on the desk to guide 
the clergyman, and which would claim the attention of his hearers for one 



Churches. 299 

It does not appear from any record in Oxford wlien the in- 
troduction of instrumental ransic became a part of the church 
service, or the cliange in the mode of singing caused any 
disquietude in the church, even when the pitch-pipe was 
sounded. 

Before the close of the last century the New England ver- 
sion of Psalms and Hymns was the only sacred poetry that 
was allowed admittance into most of the churches. These 
were read, line by line, by one of the deacons, when another 
set the tune, in which the whole congregation were expected 
to unite. 

In England there was annexed to the Book of Common 
^Prayer the version of Sternhold and Hopkins. The first metri- 
cal version of the Psalms in English appeared in 1549. 

" Thomas Sternhold a court poet, translated 51 Psalms." 

John Hopkins a clergyman, 58. 

The other contributors were, principally, William Whyting- 
ham, Dean of Durham, and Thomas l^orton, a barrister. 

This version, enlarged, was annexed to the Book of Common 
Prayer, and was in general use until 1696.* 



hour. In frout of some pulpits was a socket for the hour-glass. An 
hour-glass was also in the library of the minister, to guide him in pre- 
paring his sermons. One of the duties of the sexton was to keep and 
turn the glass. 

* The New England version, or better known as the Bay Psalm Book, 
was made in 1640, and was the work of Revs. Thomas Weld, John Eliot 
and Richard Matlier, and continued in use for more than 100 years, and 
was succeeded by the collection of hymns by Dr. Watts, nearly at the 
close of the last century. 

Tate and Brady's collection followed Sternhold and Hopkins' version, 
and was generally used in the Episcopal church in America and other 
churches in this country. 

The church in Oxford made use of this collection. 

There are still copies to be found which were used in church service 
in Oxford. 



300 The Records of Oxford. 

" Some of the CiO'gyincii attempted a reform in singing — 
and the notes, fa, so], la, were by some considered blaspliemous." 
" The new way of singing will make the young people disor- 
derly, and if they go to singing school they will be having 
frolics." 

In the Oxford church those wdio could sing sat in tlie " sing- 
ers' seats." The leader, Mr. Ludden,gave out the tune and the 
pitch, the singers sounded their parts, bass, tenor, alto and 
treble, fa-la-sol-fa " singing a fuguing tune, one part following 
another, till all seem to be lost in a labyrinth of melody, but 
coming out right at last." 

In 1780, many persons objected to new tunes being sung in 
the churches and were offended at the innovation and absented 
themselves from church service. At what time a change was 
made from singing by the congregation to a choir in Oxford 
does not appear, but previously some one had been chosen to 
line the hymn when it was sung.* 

Before the Revolution the hymns were "lined," the clerk 
of the church standing in front of the pulpit reading a line and 
the congregation singing it, and then reading another, and so 
on through the hymn. 



* At a meeting in the north parish of Sutton, Feb. 4, 1768, *' It was 
proposed that, if it would not be grievous to any of the Brethren, a 
Hymn out of Dr. Watts' should be sung at the communion, and if it 
would be grievous to any they were desired to speak." 

"After three or four hymns being read that were pertinent for that 
purpose no objections appeared, but several spoke agreeable." — From 
an old town record in tlie nortli parish of Sutton. 

In 1743 Rev. John Campbell, of Oxford, wrote, "Using Hymns, so 
as almost to have superseded tlie Psalms of David and other spiritual 
Songs. This is a manifest Violation and reproach of the Wisdom and 
Law of God. ... I am far from thinking that the good Gentleman 
[Dr. Watts] whose hymns are mostly used by our giddy Zealots ever 
intended that composure of his should ever supersede the Psalms of 
David." — Cam'plielVs Ireatise. 



Churches. 301 

And then on Sunday, standing in the singers' seats, with a 
bass-viol to keep them making music that thrilled and delighted 
the congregation. There was great opposition to viols and 
vioHns in the churches. As the years passed not only the 
viols and violins, but flutes, bugles, horns, clarinets, bassoons and 
trombones were used as a part of sacred music* 

Funeral Service. 

In 1730, a Boston newspaper, in speaking of a funeral, 
says, " Before carrying out the corpse, a funeral prayer was 
made by one of the pastors of the old church, which, though a 
custom in the country towns, is a singular instance in this place, 
but it is wished may prove a leading example to the general 
practice of so decent and Christian example. 

During the first half of the last centurj' there was often 
great parade made at funerals, particularly by those of the rich. 
Gloves, gold rings, hat-bands and mourning scarfs were fre- 
quently presented to those gentlemen in attendance. Near 
friends acted as bearers, carrying the body on a bier on the 
shoulders, there being relays as occasion required in the pro- 
cession (in some places males and females did not walk together, 
but those of the sex of the deceased walked nearest to the re- 
mains). Officers with staffs and mourning badges accompanied 
the procession. 

This custom has until very recently been continued in some 
of the country towns in this county. The town of Sutton 

* To the time of Luther the psahiis of the Bible were mostly used by 
Christians in devotional service. Among the earliest was, "Lord, thou 
hast been our dwelling place in all generations," written by Moses. 

Clement of Alexandria was an ancient writer of hymns. In the 
eleventh century, Bernard de Morals, monk of Cluui, made great addi- 
tions to sacred poetry. A translation from his works is a hymn, than 
which no more beautiful has been written, "Jerusalem the Golden." 

Then followed the sweet hymns of Thomas a Kempis, Luther and 
Clement Marot. 



302 The Records of Oxford. 

may be iiained as one of the last of tliose towns retaining this 
tribute of respect. 

Oxford Town Records, April 4, 1796. In Town meeting 
voted that the selectmen provide a wJiceled carriage to convey 
the dead to burial. Previous to this date all funeral processions, 
whether on foot or on horseback, the dead were conveyed on a 
bier with relays if the distance required. 

Mrs. Eunice (Turner) Eastman's funeral was one of the last 
in Oxford where the mourners were on horseback, two horses 
abreast. The funeral service was at the old church on the north 
common, and a daughter of James Butler was buried in the 
same manner. The gentleman to whom she was engaged to be 
married preceded the parents on horseback unaccompanied. 
Rings were presented to the near friends of the deceased in 
memory of the departed. 

A lady described the funeral of Mrs. Eunice (Turner) East- 
man, as the procession wound its way among the tall elms over 
the north common to the church. It was a cold, gloomy day 
in December; heavy clouds hung low down in the sky ; the air 
filled with snow. Though the lady were a child sitting at her 
nursery window, in a deep wide gable of an ancient house, she 
received her first impressions of death from viewing the sable 
procession on that mournful day and the measured tread of the 
horses' hoofs, for there were no carriages following the coffin 
on the bier, borne by bearers. All the mourners were on horse- 
back two in file. The church-yard near the south common 
then a common stone wall enclosed its ground — fifty years ao-o 
it was choked with briars and fat weeds. 

One has to look very carefully to disco vei- those old graves. 
Their dust should be respected. Sometimes the only inscriptions 
are the initial letters and the year rudely carved. Then there 
was the poor corner where were the graves of the friendless. 

In many old cemeteries before the year 1700, the head-stones 
seldom had any name or date. These stones were the common 



Churches. 303 

brownstone. In instances a chisel had cut the initial letters of 
the name of the one entombed. 

In the seventeenth century hour-glasses were used as a device 
on tomb-stones, with this inscription : "As this glass runneth, 
so man's life passeth." 

Upon some ancient head-stones in the burying-ground would 
be rndely cut the old man Time, with an hour-glass clutched 
in one hand and a scythe in the other. Angels blowing trum- 
pets w^ith open books, or a skull and cross-bones, would be seen 
on other head-stones. * 

An old record Dec. 1, 180S, It being Thanksgiving Mr. 
Andrew Sigourney presented the Congregational Chh & So- 
ciety by the hand of Kev' Mr. Moulton with a large elegant 
Gilt Bible & Psalm Book to be kept for the use of the desk in 
the north meeting house in Oxford; on the receiving of which 
the Chh & Society voted their thanks to Mr. Sigourney the 
Donor.f 



* October 24, 1771, It was granted 3 pounds to buy a new Burying 
cloth. — Town Records. 

Oxford Town Records, May, 14, 1798, At a Town-meeting "Mr. An- 
drew Sigourney, came into the meeting and presented the town with a 
velvet funeral pall, ujiou receiving his present the town voted him thanks.'' 

fin families of distinguished birth in these days escutcheons were 
placed upon the coffin, and hatchments were hung in the mansion house 
of the deceased. 

"Escutcheons with rings and kid gloves were given to near friends, 
and in some instances suits of mourning, and relatives and servants 
were put in mourning. Tenants and dependents received gloves as well 
as intimate friends with their invitation to the funeral ceremony. Gloves 
were also given to pall-bearers, and sometimes orphans of a surviving 
parent, deceased, following first after the corpse, were accompanied by a 
waiting maid and a negro servant. Both were put in mourning as usual." 

In an ancient cliarge of funeral expenses, 11 dozen gloves "for 
funeral" £30-6-11. 

Letchford, writing in 1641, says, " At burials nothing is i-ead, nor any 
funeral sermon made, but all the neighborhood, or a good company of 



304 TJic Records of Oxford. 

In these days and into the present centniy it was regarded 
as a breach of etiquette, a downright inhospitality, not to offer 
wine to the guests, particularly when the minister called. 

Even at a funeral the bearers must " take a drink ' ' before they 
removed their coffined neighbor from his own earthly home. 

Marriages in olden time in Oxford were announced by the 
publication of marriage by banns, or a notice of the intended 
marriage was posted on the church door or in some other pub- 
lic place. 

In about 1750, a statute of the twenty-sixth year of George 
II enacted that "the banns should be regularly published 
three successive Sundays in the church of tlie parish where for 
the time residing. 

Archbishop Seeker, the primate between 1758 and 1768, 
originated the arrangement of special licenses. 

During CromwelTs protectorate, the "Little Parliament of 
lt)53, dechired that marriage was to be merely a civil contract ; 
forbade the use of the ' Book of Common Prayer,' and inter- 
dicted the clergy from performing any of the offices of the 
church under severe penalties." 

The parties professed in the presence of a justice of the 
peace their mutual desire to be married. 



them, came together by tolling of the bell, and carry the dead solemnly 
to his grave, and then stand by him while he is buried. The ministers 
are most commonly present. 

" On the return from the grave a liberal entertainment was served 
at which wines and intoxicating liquors, pipes and tobacco were liberally 
provided." The cause of temperance has made wonderful progress dur- 
ing the last half century. '' Fifty years ago," says a clergyman (Rev. Dr. 
Patton of New Haven, Ct.), "funerals were set at three o'clock in the 
afternoon, and the procession did not move until four; the intervening 
time was spent in drinking. A great many persons went to funerals then. 
They went early, and did not leave until the funeral started." 

In 1713, Judge Sewall has this record in his diary: "The four 
churches (in Boston) treated their ministers." 



Churches. 305 

Usually the proclamation was made in the market place by 
the bellman. 

This act continued until 1658, when persons were allowed 
to adopt the accustomed rites of religion it" they preferred 
them. 

The earliest canonical enactment on the subject of marriage 
banns in the English church, is said to have been made by the 
Synod of Westminster or London in 1200, which ordered 
that no marriage should be contracted without banns thrice 
published in the church, unless by the special authority of the 
bishop. 

Formerly the Ijetrotlial ring was worn as at the present 
time, on the left hand on the finger next to the least. 

It is said that women wore the wedding ring upon the 
left hand, because that hand is a sign of inferioritj^ or sub- 
jection. 

During the time of the commonwealth the Puritans en- 
deavored to abolish the use of the wedding ring, for the reason 
it was of pagan invention. 

It is now required that a wedding ring should be used at a 
marriage in the English church. The rubric directs that " the 
man shall give unto the woman a ring. * * * And the 
priest taking the ring shall deliver it to the man, to put it upon 
the fourth linger of the woman's left hand. 

During the reigns of George I and George II, the wed- 
ding ring, although placed upon the usual finger at the time of 
marriage, was sometimes worn on the thumb, in which position 
it is represented in the portrait of Madam Elizabeth Freake, 
Btill a relic retained by her descendants in the Sigourney family 
of Oxford.* 



*A wedding ring worn upon the thumb dates back to the reign of 
Charles II. 

Anciently a ring was used in betrothals rather than at weddings. 
The man jilaced a ring on the finger, whicli is at tlie present day pre- 

39 



3o6 TJic Records of Oxford. 

At early English weddings niQncy was thrown over the 
heads of the bride and bridegroom and distributed at the church 
door. The Wardrobe Accounts of Edward II state this fashion 
of the time: "In the tenth year of his reign money to the 
value £2 10s. was thrown over the heads of Oliver de Bor- 
deaux and the Lady Maude Trussel, during the solemnization 
of their nuptials, at the door of the chapel within the park of 
Woodstock, by the King's order." No wedding could be com- 
plete without the marriage benedictions of a priest, hence the 
bridegroom was called a Benedict. 

The giving of gloves at weddifigs is a ver\^ ancient fashion. 
Ben Joiison, in his play of the "^ Silent Woman," makes Lady 
Haughty say, " We see no ensigns of a wedding here, no char- 
acter of a l)ride ale ; where be our skarves and our gloves?" 
Arnold, in his '' Chronicle,'' in 1521, refers to an inquiry to be 
made at the visitation of ordinaries to churches, namely : 
" Whether the curat refuse to do the solemnysacyon of lawful 
matrymonye before he have gyfte of money, hoses or gloves. " 
Pepys in his " Diary" under date 5th July, 1603, says he was 
at a wedding and had two pairs of gloves hke the rest of the 
visitors. It is still the custom to give white gloves to the 
guests at marriages. 

"Bride favors were formerly worn by gentlemen in their 
hats, or on their breasts or arms, for several weeks. They con- 
sisted of a large knot of ribbons of various colors. White ribbons 
were favorites for these adornments. Missonsays, 'AVhen the 
eldest son of M. de Overkenjue marry'd the Duke of Ormond's 
sister, thc}^ dispers'd a whole inundation of those little favoi-s. 



served for the benedictions of marriage; a man who wished to pledge 
his faitii as the future husband of a woman. 

In England the ancient marriage ritual recognized the practice of of- 
fering money. Thus in the Salisbury Missal. "Tlie man be enjoined 
to say: ' Wyth this rynge y tlie wedde, and thys gold and selvir the 
geve and with all my worldly catel I thee endowe.' " 



Churches. 307 

" Notliinej else was here to be meet with, from tlie hat of the 
Kino; down to the lowest servant among the citizens and plain 
gentlemen, which is what tliej call the gentry. They sometimes 
give these favors." 

"In 1629 Bay was used for garlands and that 'rosemary is 
almost of as great use as bays as well for civill as physical pur- 
poses for civil as all doe know at weddings to bestow among 
friends.' " See Garden of Flowers, Parkinson. 

"In 1634, we are told that 'bay is fit for halls and stately 
roomes, where if there be a wedding kept, or such like feast, 
he will be sure to take a place more eminent than the rest.' " 

"He is a great companion with the rosemary, which was 
thought in olden time to strengthen the memory and was worn 
at weddings and funerals." 

The "strewing'of herbs, rushes, and flowers from the house 
of the bride to the church was an ancient fashion in England. 
At bride ales the houses and chambers were woont to be strawed 
(with roses) these odoriferous and sweet herbes." 

The fashion of strewing flowers before a bride is still re- 
tained in some parts of England. The children of the village 
scatter wild flowers before the bride as she leaves the church 
after the ceremony. 

The wedding party walked or rode in pairs at rustic wed- 
dings. Four little bridesmaids carried baskets of buttercups 
and wild roses to grace the weddings in days by-gone. 

Bouquets or nosegays and posies, as they were formerly called, 
were common appendages to a wedding in olden time. 

Primroses and violets are mentioned as flowers used in bridal 
nosegays. Some old customs are still continued; the departing 
bride and bridegroom are sometimes saluted with old shoes and 
slippers, as omens for good luck, and rice is tlirown over the bride. 

The fashion of introducing orange blossoms into wedding bou- 
quets and wreaths, though an European fashion, is derived from 
eastern countries, being the emblem of a prosperous marriage. 



3o8 The Records of Oxford. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Schools and Libkaries. 

Before tlie incorporation of Worcester county in 1731, the 
colonial laws required the towns to have free schools for the 
education of all the children. The public school system of the 
colony was fully established. It was enacted that the " General 
Court of Sessions of the Peace," in each county, should have 
jurisdiction in regard to schools so far as to hear complaints 
from the towns which neglected to provide the means of educa- 
tion for all the children according to the requirements of the 
law. The court exerted its authority in every case, and the 
towns thus negligent were required to supply school-houses and 
furnish teachers for their children on pain of fine and costs. 
In these school-days of only two months during the year many 
of the scholars were obliged to pass through deep woods by fol- 
lowing difficult foot-trails in the summer, or in winter this 
course was over a hard-beaten path in the snow. The schools 
were in very desolate places in the midst of an unbroken forest. 

Schools in Oxford. 

There is a record of a vote upon the town books in 1733, by 
which the selectmen were instructed to " procure a school- 
master." In 1730, the town voted to build a school-house 
14x20 ft. with a chimney at each end. 

17-10 May y^ 28, Then hired by the Select men of this town 
Mr. Richard Rogers, to teach school the fifth day of June, 
from thence to teach at such places as the Select men shall 
order, the said school-master is to be paid out of the Town's 
Treasury sixty pounds in " Bils" of Public Credit of the old 
tenor or the equivalent. 



Schools and Libraries. 309 

Mr. Rogers being hired to keep the scliool at £60 per year 
$200, and he kept the school for twenty-two years in succession. 

OxFOED, May the 8, 1747. 

Tlien Reconed with the Select men of Oxford and Received 

Sixty pounds in full for keeping a school in said Oxford from 

the Begining of the world to this day I say Received for 

me. 

Richard Rogers.* 



*'' May 17, 1750, Voted that the school be kept iu four places in the 
town two at the North End and two at the South End a quarter of a 
year at a place." 

1766, Voted that there be liberty granted to set up a school-house in 
the south part of the town and liberty granted to set up a school-house 
in the north part of the town. 

It is said Mr. Rogers was a gentleman of superior education, "the 
best teacher of his time," being an excellent scholar in Latin and 
excelled every one in his time in penmanship. Tradition states he had 
no superior in his profession. Oxford was quite at the head of educa- 
tion. He gave instruction to the sons of Rev. John Campbell in Latin 
either at the school he taught (as was allowed by paying additional 
school fee to the " Master") or as a private tutor. 

The Latin book which belonged to his pupils (Mr. Campbell's sons) is 
in good preservation, as also specimens of Mr. Rogers' elegant penman- 
ship. 

If Latin were taught in a school it was called a grammar school. 

Mr. Rogers in 1732 was a schoolmaster in Worcester and taught a 
school for several years. In 1740 he came to Oxford and was engaged 
as a teacher until his enlistment in the French War, 1760. In deeds he 
was styled "scrivener." He died in 1761. 

He married Martha, a daughter of Jeremiah Buckman, of Sutton; 
his widow married in April, 1761, Jonathan Towne, of Oxford, and in 
a third marriage, December, 1775, Isaac Dodge, of Sutton. Mr. David 
Dodge, a great grandson of Isaac Dodge, stated that when he accom- 
panied his aunt, Miss Prudence Dodge (who died in Sutton in 1863, at 
a very advanced age), to Oxford, or passed through the town, that when 
they were opposite the old common in front of the church-yard. Miss 
Prudence would call his attention by telling him "here was the house 



3 lo The Records of Oxford. 

In 1740 it was voted tliat twenty families on Prospect Hill 
might build a school-house and draw their proportion of money 
for a school. 

That those living between "Prospect" and "ye brook that 
runs between Mr. Campbell's and Joseph Rockets might do the 
same (and also those south of the said brook)." 

In 1760 it ap])ears by record that there were two school- 
houses at the south part of the town. There was one on the 
plain fronting north on the South Common. In 1767 there 
was a second school-house built upon the plain east of the house 
of Jonathan Fuller on the Six-rod road to Sutton. He had 
bought the north-west side of Sigourney corner including the 
old house that was afterward the home of Andrew Sigourney 
until he built the brick house in 1817 on the south-west corner 
of the Six- rod road with Main street. 

In 1767 a school-house was built on the north part of the 
town in the lane eastward of the Eight-rod way from Jonas 
Pratt's, near Towne's pond. Pratt had made a settlement on 
the west side of the Eight-rod way on Towne's plain. This 
school-house was removed to the Wolcott estate and not used 
for a school. f 

In 1775 Joseph Hudson, Jeremiah Shu m way and others on 
the hill known as Long or Federal Hill, north-east part of the 
town, were set off to have a school by themselves. 

In 1782 Ebenezer Davis and others in the east part of the 
town were set off in like manner. 

of your grandmother Rogers Dodge." Mr. David Dodge said it was very 
near the Wolcott mansion house, he thought, some part of the house. 

In 1751 a house was built for Mr. Rogers, sixteen by eighteen feet, 
"inside convenient room for a chimney," at a cost of £13 6s 8d, which 
he occupied until his decease. This house joined the Wolcott house on 
the north-east corner. 

fWhen the school-house east of Jonas Pratt's estate was removed 
another school-house was erected not far from its site, known as James 
Butler's (North Centre, No. 6 ward;. 



Schools and Libraries. 311 

In 1775 these divisions which were called " squadrons" were 
called " Vv\ards." 

In 1803 or in 1801 a school-house was built on the plain on 
the Charlton road next the Ked Tavern and near Mrs. L. 
Corbin's residence. The one east of Fuller's house on Sutton 
road was no loni:^er used for a school. 

A school record of Oxford from 1780-1787. James Bntler 
stated " he learned grammar from one Shum way, while the 
other children (his brothers and sisters) were the scholars of a 
Dr. Walker, who, for fear of betraying his own ignorance, 
would never let them parse." 

The first " Dame School " in Oxford of which there is any tra- 
dition was taught by Miss Betty Jermer (Elizabeth Shumway). 

Miss Betty's home was about one mile easterl}' of the old 
north common ; here there was no open road, only a bridle-path 
passed the house, with gate- ways or bar places for an occasional 
traveler on horseback to pass through ; whenever the sour.d of 
a horse's hoof was heard Miss Bett}^ and her pupils presented 
themselves at the door and passed their salutations. There 
was a heavy stone chimney to the house and a deep cavern-like 
fireplace, which in winter presented a cheerful fireside with its 
heavy log fire. The floor was scoured to whiteness and covered 
with the finest sand. Her instruction in arithmetic was oral, 
Miss Betty making the figures on the sanded floor with her 
rod (for teachers were thus armed in those days), and her pu- 
pils with their square pieces of birch-bark and bits of charcoal 
copying the sums she had given them. 

The children having walked a long distance were made very 
comfortable at the long recess, as their dinners were many 
times frozen, and sometimes their food required cooking. Miss 
Betty was devoted in her care for them in preparing their fru- 
gal repast. Apples were roasted and nuts were cracked in pro- 
fusion, and then with their old-fashioned games they had an 
enjoyable time. 



3 1 2 TJic Records of Oxford. 

The ancestors of the Hudson, Dana and Pratt families were 
included in the school. 

There is no record of ladies being eujploj'ed by the town 
as teachers or school dames in the schools. In the latter 
part of the last century and at the commencement of the 
present century, there were ladies who taught the sunmier 
schools. 

Mrs. Susan Thurston, the widow of Rev. Mr. Thurston of 
Medway, and in a second marriage to Ebenezer Waters, Esq., 
of Sutton, was a teacher and taught in the little school-house 
on the Sutton road, the Oxford plain, so called, very early in the 
present century, which was the second scliool-house erected 
u]ion Oxford plain, the site of which was on the left hand 
side of the Sutton road as you leave Main street about opposite 
to the blacksmith's shop. 

Miss Davis, of Roxbur}^, taught a school in the first Samuel 
Davis mansion, in the cast part of the town. Miss Hudson, 
of Oxford, taught school in the school-house nearly opposite 
to Towne's pond, near the old north common. Miss Hudson 
afterward was married to Mr. John Mayo, of Oxford. She 
lived to a great age of over ninety years. Miss Mar}^ Turner 
also taught the school at this same place at a ver}'' early date for 
many summers, and died in Oxford, at a very advanced age, 
and was the last of these ancient ladies. 

Knitting, plain sewing and needle work were taught by all 
ladies who were employed to teach, and was in those days, be- 
fore sewing machines were in practice, a part of a female pnpil's 
education. For everj' pupil, in finishing her school days, 
wrought a sampler of small size on yellow canvas. Others 
wrought on a large scpiarc of white or yellow canvas, contain- 
ing the alphabet in Roinan and writing letters, with figures, 
sometimes surrounded on three sides with a wreath of flowers, 
while underneath were trees and old ruins and churches ; and 
sometimes a basket of flowers, or even birds and beasts, were 



Schools and Libraries. 3 1 3 

wrought in many-colored silk, and then the name of the artist 
was added, with some sentiment of a prose or poetical effusion, 
as " Industrious Ingenuitj' may find Noble employment for the 
female mind." 

An antique sampler from England. The embroidery with 
which it was embellished comprised a portion of a flower-garden, 
representing tulips and other flowers, with a landscape view 
ornamented from natural history. Grace Varley, her work, 
1796 with Elizabeth Henderson. 

A speciman of good manners from the " Young Ladies and 
Gentleman's spelling book " a century ago: "When you come 
into a room, or go out of it, or when you meet people on the 
street, you must make the handsomest bow you can." 

" If you ask for any thing you must say, pray, sir, give me 
such a thing; or, pray, madam, give me such a thing.'' 

" When you are spoken to, you must say, yes, sir ; or no, 
sir ; yes, madam or no, madam." 

" Your most obedient. Miss Sally, and how do you do to-day ? " 
" I thank you, Miss Polly, I am very well, and I hope I have 
the pleasure of seeing you well." 

Boys and girls were taught in the "women school" or 
dame's school, and used the New England Primer or any sub- 
stitute from which the alphabet and primary reading and spell- 
ing could be learned and taught, the catechism. School books 
were so few that a whole family of children, not of a poor family, 
would be seen going to school with only one speller. At eleven 
years of age the pupils of these schools were taught arithmetic, 
and at twelve years of age they should be taught to make 
pens. 

The catechism was taught in all public schools outside of 
Boston until the close of the last century, and in some of the 
dame schools at a still later date. 

1767 March 2, to see if the town will pass a vote that each 
school squadron (Ward) shall be obliged, each person or per- 
40 



314 The Records of Oxford. 

sons belonging to each squadron to pay toward building their 
respective schools in the Province Rate. 

The school-houses were soon increased as the town was divided 
into " squares," or " squadrons," or school districts, as they were 
afterward designated. 

The school districts were not designated by the numbers, as 
at the present time, but were named from some landed proprie- 
tor in their vicinity or otherwise, as the North Gore, or South 
Gore, Prospect, etc. 

The first school books to come into use in the colonies from 
England were the spellers. These were successively, Fenning's, 
Moore's, Dilworth's and Perry's ; were in the schools previous 
to the Revolution. The two last named retained their place in 
New England schools until after the commencement of the 
present century. Dilworth's speller was entitled " A New 
Guide to the English Tongue," and contained not only a gram- 
mar and reading lessons, but several forms of prayer. 

A copy published at Hartford, Ct., in 1786, is of the 23d 
edition. Most of the editions were published in England. The 
book was obviously intended for the teacher only. 

Thomas Dilworth " Schoolmaster of Wappmg," England. 

The spelling book of William Perry was entitled " The Only 
Sure Guide to the English Tongue," 

The clergymen who were located over New England in 
these various rural parishes, were in the habit of hearing the 
recitations of many of the young people in the higher branches 
of study in an education. 

All the youth were guided to a great degree in their reading 
by the suggestions of the clergymen to good English authors, 
and then the social intercourse with the clergyman's family 
was of great advantage, as the society of clergymen's families 
was of a most eligible character in all its surroundings. 



Schools and Libra7'ies. 315 

An Example of Home Influence. 

The mother of Washington was in the daily habit of read- 
ing to her sons from some serious standard book. One of her 
great favorites was Sir Matthew Hale's " Contemplations, Moral 
and Divine," and her copy of this book is still preserved among 
the treasures of Mount Vernon. 

Miss Mary Turner, as was the fashion of the time, finished 
her education under the instruction of a clergyman, becoming 
the inmate of Rev. Dr. Crane's family of Northbridge, Mass. 

Hon. Judge Barton, a native of Oxford, was in his youth 
directed in his education before entering Brown University by 
the famous Master Hall of Sutton, Mass., who was extensively 
known as " learned in the ancient languages." Master Hall 
was the son of the distinguished Rev. Dr. Hall of Sutton. 

Many young men who had little to do in winter went to the 
village school until they were from eighteen to twenty years of 
ao-e. So that the winter schools to a certain extent were com- 
posed of young men. The school would continue three and 
sometimes four months. In those days the " committee man " 
selected the teachers, and the teacher " boarded round " in 
families where he had scholars. To be sure there was much 
rusticity in the manners of the children and youth, more than 
in the present. The boys then took off their hats to all 
travelers they met upon the streets and roadside, however 
inelegantly it might be performed, and passed all persons with 
a noticeable respect. 

In parish schools the spelling classes then went "above," 
the position of the " head of the class '' being held but one 
week, when the head scholar was placed at the foot of the class 
with the hope of rising again. 

As an incentive to good orthography, extra evening " Spelling 
Schools " were the fashion all through the country towns to pass 
away the long winter evenings. 



3 1 6 The Records of Oxford. 

Tlioiigh Washington was extremely dignified, he was kind 
and polite to all. A very old colored women, who remembered 
him as a visitor at her master's house, said he was very kind 
to the servants, and always remembering their names. " Other 
gentlemen would pass by without a word, but de President — 
he'd a been President then — he used always to say, 'How's 
you dis mornin, Katy ? ' same as if I'd been a lady. But you 
don't see such gentlemen now a daj's. They don't teach young 
folks manners like they used !" 

Manners Out of School. 

My aunt taught me, her little niece, to move gently, to speak 
softly and prettily, to say "yes, ma'am" and "no, ma'am," to 
keep my clothes clean, and knit and sew at regular hours, to 
go to church on Sundays and make all the responses, and come 
home and be thoroughly drilled in the catechism. — Harriet 
Beecher Stowe. 

The boarding schools for young ladies were very few and of 
a very high character. Miss L. M. Thayer, of Braintree, Mass.j 
a sister of Col. Thayer, commandant at West Point, and her 
sisters, were teachers of great celebrity in the early part of the 
present century, and among other places the young ladies of 
Oxford were favored with their instruction. Not only were 
their English studies carefully directed, but in deportment 
and in drawing, painting and in the most beautiful embroidery, 
that can scarcely be equaled in the present time, and in all 
choice needlework. 

Ladies did a great deal of embroidery, working most wonder- 
ful landscapes and seascapes. The style was of that delightful 
kind which combined figures with landscapes. 

There is still to be found in antique embroidery Arcadia, 
the ideal country of virtue and happiness. (We need not try 
to identify with the country formerly so called in the peninsu- 
las of Greece.) 



Schools and Libraries. 317 

At a time when people had nothing to do but to stroll about 
or sit in the rural meadows, as a sliepherdess leaning on her 
crook watching her flock of sheep and a shepherd boy piping 
sweet music with a simple reedy flute and singing of their love 
for one another. 

Many designs from ancient history or heathen mythology 
were most beautifully executed. 

The Misses Saunders and Beach taught a boarding school at 
Dorchester, Mass. " The young ladies however used pewter 
spoons which were thought good enough for boarding school 
girls in that day." 

One young lady of the ancient Hutchinson family of Boston 
on her arrival at the school took out of her "long pocket" a 
silver spoon and began eating her breakfast. " As long as 
there are silver spoons in the world," she said in an undertone, 
" I sliall eat with one, and when there ceases to be, I will put 
up with some infeiior metal." 

Many years after, when one of her school friends had be- 
come an elderly lady, she said of this young Uidy, " She was really 
the most generous girl in school," and this Anne Jane Rob- 
bins in her brilliant youthfulness was married to Judge Lyman 
of Nortlmmptoii. — An extract from " Recollections of my 
Mother," by Susan Inches Lesley. 

For many years the portrait of this young lady's grand- 
mother, Mrs. Elizabeth (Freake) Hutcliinson, graced the walls 
of the Wolcott mansion, and her mother's uncle, Mr. Edward 
Hutchinson, made Oxford his home, giving his fortune to his 
niece, who married Governor Robbins. The remains of Mr. 
Hutchinson were placed in the Wolcott family vault. 

" The old-fashioned blank-book — its paper yellow with age 
— at the ' Ladies Academy,' Dorchester, July 20, 1803." One- 
half of the book is taken up with sections, as they are called, 
describing the " Use of Globes." And the fine, large, clear 
handwriting, the exact definitions of globes, spheres, properties 



3 1 8 The Records of Oxford. 

of spheres, climates, circles, declinations and ascensions, together 
with the perfect spelling, make me helieve that the child of 
thirteen received excellent instruction at the " Ladies Academy." 
— " Recollections of my Mother," by Susan Inches Lesley. 

The school books in these primitive days were few. The 
reading of the Bible, especially the Psalter, and the study of 
the catechism, with Dil worth's spelling book. Then there was 
the sum book, of magic interest in the study of arithmetic. 
Grammar when mastered Latin was studied. Many assert that 
the learning of the catechism trained the memory. The effort to 
understand gave vigor to the mind, precision to habits of think- 
ing and clearness of expression. As an educating expedient, it 
has been followed by nothing superior in all the excellent com- 
pendiums of mental or moral science used in scliool. 

In later times clergymen of the town visited the schools and 
heard the recitations from the catechism. Dr. Emmons of 
Franklin, the noted divine of the last century, it appears, was the 
last to discontinue this practice in the schools of New England, 
continuing the same into the early part of the present century. 

It is said in the present century Ur. Emmons was not in 
favor of establishing Sunday-schools in the churclies, preferring 
the practice of catechising the children at tlie village school. 
It is said the fii'st Sunday-school in Franklin, Mass., " was estab- 
lished almost under the protest of Dr. Emmons" — as he be- 
lieved many wlio were taught the catechism in the village 
schools would not be included in a Sunday-school for instruc- 
tion. 

One of his pupils, still living (1885), states that when Dr. 
Emmons entered the school-room all the jiupils arose from their 
seats and bowed to him, or made their manners (as then styled), 
he waving his hand and bowing to them. As soon as he was 
seated the pupils resumed their seats ; the different classes were 
called out to stand before him while lie should question them 
from the catechism. They all bowed to him at the commence- 



Schools and Libraries. 3 19 

ment of the lesson, and again at the close of their examination. 
After offering prayers in the school the scholars arose while he 
took his leave of them in the room. These visits to the 
scholars were made on Saturday every month. 

Mrs. Alexander De Witt, one of his pupils, states his manner 
of catechising the children in the village schools. After they 
had repeated the words of the catechism, Dr. Emmons would 
inquire : " Well, Polly (my little maid), let me hear if you un- 
derstand what you said respecting the commandments of God." 
Again he would to another jDupil say, " Repeat to me the 
eighth commandment. JSTow, my little man, do you under- 
stand the meaning of this connnandment, to respect your neigh- 
bor's property ? 

"Does this commandment allow you to take apples from his 
orchard, or in any way to take his property without his con- 
sent ? " 

One can easily picture Dr. Emmons as he entered the 
school-room to catechise the children, and with what awe 
and respect he was received by the pupils, with his tri-coruered 
cocked hat held in his hand extended, dressed in a plain 
black suit with a very long coat and knee-breeches, and black 
stockings. Knee and shoe buckles set off his dignified person. 
It is said he wore his hair long in early life and at a later date 
his hair fell between his shoulders in a ribbon-bound queue, 
which fashion of dressing the hair followed the powdered wig. 
Dr. Emmons never changed his style of dress, though he lived 
into this century. 

In the ancient north parish of Sutton and what is now known 
as the " Old Millbury Common," February 28, 1779, a vote 
was passed to the effect that all youth under the authority of 
parents and masters of the congregation (in that parish), should 
be catechised four times a year by the pastor (Rev. Mr. 
Chaplin). 



320 The Records of Oxford, 

Madame Campan. 

Madame Campan, a Catholic lady of France, was a French 
writer upon education in the last century. 

She resided at the court of Louis XVI. Her writings were 
honored by the French Academy. She was at the head of the 
French bureau of education. 

A translation from the French : " In parish schools there 
should be most assiduous care in the moral education of the 
young." 

"Religion, so powerful over all hearts, and morals, which 
ought to rule all our thoughts, our affections and our conduct, 
is the indispensable basis of this particular system of instruc- 
tion. It is very essential to stifle at an early period the germs 
of vice in the young. — Extract from the Memoirs of Madame 
Campan, French edition. 

Madame Campan states that " all should receive the rudi- 
ments of an education, reading, writing and a knowledge of 
figures, with a strict moral instruction to all classes of society. 

" And then a separate course of education should be pursued 
with the different positions in society — those intended for a 
professional life should direct their pursuits in learning to that 
end, and others to mercantile life or as soldiers or artisans " or 
to cultivate landed estates. 

"In the brilliant pensionnet of St. Germain, in the beau- 
tiful establishment d'Ecouen, these reflections were often pre- 
sented to my mind. I was still more impressed when I lived 
in the quiet retreat of a little village, how incomplete was 
the system of education. A moral instruction and religion 
will teach a child to respect the authorit}^ of his parents and 
teacher, to respect the laws of his country and to respect the 
property of his neighbor. The youth should continue to learn 
the history of the Old and New Testament ; that all the words 
of the Gospel be graven in their hearts as much as in their 



Schools and Libraries. 321 

memoi'j, and follow the instructions of the catechism of their 
church." 

To the young: One cannot repeat too often this ancient 
and useful n)axini : " Idleness is the mother of all vices, false- 
hood, robbei-y and other crimes." A I'cspect for the property 
of others is a tie of all society; all would be confusion and lost 
in the world without this respect of that which does not belong 
to ourselves. 

Madame Campan gives an illustration : Cartouche, the 
famous robber of the seventeenth century. He was educated in 
a college of Paris but he had profited by his studies only to 
increase his deceptions and vices. He tinished his C'ireer by 
becoming an assassin, and by being contlenined to be broken 
alive 6' Mr La place de Greve a Pa?' is. 

Cartouche had occupied the attention of all France by the 
pains the police had to secure the arrest of his person. 

When he ascended the scaffold, his hands pinioned behind his 
back, he Iiad a calm air. Several of the attendants of the ex- 
ecutioner surrounded him ; he requested to speak to the vast 
multitude of people ; his request was granted. One of the at- 
tendants cried with a loud voice, " Cartouche wishes to speak to 
the assembly." in an instant a most profound silence reigned 
in the place. The criminal advanced to the extreme edge of 
the scaffold and made the followino^ confession : 

" I die penitent," said he to the assembly. "I wish to ren- 
der my death useful to the fathers of families and to the in- 
structors of youth. Parents, tutors and instructors, fnltill 
your duties in a watchfulness over the morals of the youth. 
At the age of seven years my parents placed me at a college. 

" There was at the gate at the entrance of the college where I 
was educated a dealer of fruits and sweet-meats. My first 
robbery v^as a plum. I took one in going out to walk. In re- 
turning I took a second. Unhappy and fatal day. My inex- 
perience hindered me from seeing the first step taken to the 
41 



322 TJie Records of Oxford, 

scaffold. I continued my petty larcenies for several months 
witliont being discovered. My secfjnd robbei-y was that of 
a roasted pnllet exj)0sed for sale at a cook shop near the col- 
lege, I soon had courage to rob silver. I took six livres from 
my preceptor, then a louis. I evaded his suspicion. My va- 
cation arrived ; I went to the country seat of my father, and I 
robbed him of twenty-five louis of gold. He would have had me 
placed in the house of correction of Saint Lazare. I evaded him, 
I wandered in the country, I slept in a forest, and I became con- 
nected with robbers, and in my robberies with this band of 
brigands, and thus I became an assassin, hoping to shun justice." 

Madame Campan enjoins humanity to be taught. It is a 
necessity to take the life of animals. But all should be regarded 
in mercy. But to nuike animals suffer, or to take lives to be 
amused with their sufferings is an atrocious wickedness, and even 
without taking their lives it is very blameable to make animals 
suffer by barbarous games. " Fly from them ; they are the 
school of the greatest cruelty." 

In Oxford, many years ago, the study of natural history 
was introduced into the village school near the old north com- 
mon in Oxford. Now it is introduced into schools in Europe. 

Monsieur de Sailly gave notes of " Teaching Kindness in 
School.'' From the mirror that he presented to our view we 
saw the reflection of his own character, as that of one possess- 
ing extreme refinement of mind blended with humanity as one 
of its crowning Christian elements. 

We would hope that our wdiole system of school education 
might be modelled from Prof, de Sailly' s outline of instruc- 
tions, as impressions made on the mind during the first four- 
teen years of life are said to mould the character. 

Illustration. 
" The Redbreast!''' — One quiet summer's day a redbreast 
was seen to be hovering near the porch "of an ancient New 



Schools and Libraries. 323 

England school-room, while the teacher and her pupils were 
engaged in their daily routine of lessons. The attention of the 
children became riveted to the movements of this strange little 
visitor. The teacher for a brief interval indulged their chil- 
dish pleasure, and showed her own sympatliy by requesting 
them to unite with her in giving the redbreast their protection, 
for in this kind act they would have an illnstratiou of the 
kindness she had taught them when giving to them lessons 
from " Natural History," The redbi-east became the protege 
of the school. She made her nest near to the old porch, where 
it could be easily reached by the children, and yet she was un- 
harmed. The confidence which this little bird appeared to 
place in her new friends was shown by her coming daily to the 
porch for food, and then bringing her young family with her 
to partake of their share. A K)vely picture is thus presented : 
a group of children listening to words of humanity, witli the 
redbreast and her young birds sharing the lesson. 

The children, from the time they became interested in this 
pet bird, were more gentle and affectionate to each other. 
Humanity taught them other right pi-inciples. The}" became 
more kind in their care of domestic animals, abandoning the 
practice of robbing birds' nests and destroying small birds. 
They were made sad by the suft'ering of animals, and snifered 
themselves by any act of cruelty done them. 

Tiie results of this branch of humane education were of a 
most pleasing character. These young children went forth 
from the " village school-room " to excite their parents and 
others to compassion for the poor brute, and with them to love 
humanity.* M. de W. F. 



* The teacher of this school (the late Mrs. Sternes DeWitt) gave in- 
struction for some years to the same pupils, and the same redbreast re- 
turned from year to year for protection. 



324 TJie Records of Oxford. 

Early Lessons in Humanity. 

When I was a little girl and lived with my father and mother 
and sister in onr home in the country, we had every thine 
lovely around US ; there was our pleasant tlower -garden with 
its rich border ilowei'S that my mother so much loved ; at the 
bottom of the garden, an arbor covered with honeysuckle and 
trellises with gi-apevines. Whenever this lovely picture of the 
home of my childhood returns to my memory, the sweet les- 
sons of Christian faith and humanity taught by my mother, 
remain, never to be forgotten. They were so blended, the one 
with the other, that humanity seemed a basis of all excellence . 
We were not taught that iiumanity was the only religion, or 
all of the Christian faith, but we w^ere taught that humanity 
was a pai't of the Christian life, and that an act of cruelty, 
whether to a poor child on the street, or to any brute, was dis- 
pleasing to God, for every creature shared in His kind care. 

An English divine has said that every brute should be made 
moi-e happy by having a Christian master. At this pleasant 
country home 1 was allowed to go to the village academy to 
recite my Latin lessons. One day, as the school-boys were go- 
ing to a green held to hnish a large map t)f the world, that the 
teachers permitted them to sketch on the ground, a i)art of the 
turf being left to form the land picture, and the pai't removed 
to i-epresent the water, I heard one boy say to another, " Let's 
have a squirrel hunt," and then produced fi-om one of his 
pockets a squirrel. It looked so forlorn and hapless that I at 
once would have taken it to my heart. I hesitated to speak to 
them of their cruel sport, and I remained standing in silence. 
Ail the lessons of my mother came to my mind ; I could speak 
to no one my childish thoughts, my dislike to go alone to a 
public play-ground tor lioys only, for I never had brothers of 
my own. ihit the school recess would soon be ended, and the 
squirrel must be saved, even if it met the scorn and rude laugh 



Schools and Libraries. 325 

of tlie whole school. Awaj I hastened over the rough stone 
stiles, i-egardless of my nicely plaited white dress and the 
smooth curls of my hair; reaching the play-ground with a dis- 
ordered dress and flushed face, I stood before the lai-ge gruup 
of boys and begged the life of the squirrel. My request was 
granted by all the boys in one voice, " Give her the squirrel." 
One boy -came forward and presented to me the poor little 
half-starved creature. I was fearful at iirst to take it, but soon 
managed to fold it in my dress for safety, and then where to 
])lace my prisoner became a question of great interest to my 
mind, as a child. I passed on with rapid steps from field to 
meadow, until 1 came to some shade trees and water, and then 
I gave my captive its liberty, returning to tlie school-room just 
in time to save me from tardiness. I was made happy, in the 
one thought that my care for one of God's creatures would re- 
ceive the approbation of my mother. M. de W. F. 

Church Library. 

A church library was the first public library established in 
Oxford. Kev. Mr. Campbell writes, in 1743 : " The Honorable 
Judge Dudley devised this liberal thing and sedulously promotes 
it among gentlemen. The Donors' Names are in a Catalogue 
of the iJooks in ' Perpetuam Doni memoriam.' I very will- 
ingly embrace this opportunity to present my liumlde thanks 
to our generous lienefactoi-s who have made a collection of 
Books for the use of the incumbent minister of this Parish." 

JOHN CAMPBELL. 

These books included specimens of costly book-making, 
ponderous volumes. Treatises on the Christian faith, books of 
sermons and commentaries. A Scripture Commentary, London 
Edition of lf)24-, was "the gift of the Rev'd Mr.Benjamin 
Wadswortii, for I he use of the Church or Parish Library of Ox- 
ford in the County of Suffolk, 1719." Mr. Wadsworth was 
the minister of the First Church in Boston, once the President 



326 TJic Records of Oxford. 

of Harvard University. A volume entitled " Hexaphla " or 
comnientarj on Roirians. " Roxl)ury, 3'' Jiilv 1736. For the 
use of the Parish Library in Oxfonl, New England, the Rev. 
Mr. Canibel being the minister. Given by Paul Dudley. A 
sermon written by WiUiam Morice, Esq., given by Paul Dudley. 
An Ex])osition uf the Psalms, a large folio in Latin, given by 
Rev. Dr. Oohnan of Boston. A volume of Sermons by Samuel 
Hieron, (Jiven by Samnel Taylor of Boston. 

" Social Library," of Oxford, dates back to the time of the 
Revolutionary War. Its founders were General Jonathan 
Davis, I)i'. Stephen Barton and Josiah Wolcott, Esq., with 
other influential persons in the town — a most valuable institu- 
tion of the lasr centnry and during the commencement of the 
present century in Oxford.* 

The Catalogu(^ was as follows: British Album, Brown's 
Elements, Barclay's Apology, Chesterfield Abridged, Clark's 
Travels, 3 vols., Campbell's Narrative, Dean's Husbandry, 
Dialogue of Devils, Domestic Eucyclopa3dia, 5 vols.. Domestic 
Cookery, Encycloi)£edia, L^ vols., Franklin's Works, Female 
Biography, Goldsmith's Works, vols., Grandpre's Voyage, 
Holmes' Sketches, 2 vols., The Hive, Ilerriot's Travels, Hiuithen 
Gods, Lidian Wars, Locke on the Understanding, 2 vols., Life 
of Washington, 5 vols.. Paradise Lost, Memoir of Cumberland, 
Modern Europe, Prideaux' History of the Bible, 4 vols., 
Parent's Friend. Pope's Works, 4 vols., Pai-ke's Travels, Por- 
teus' Evidences of Christian Religion, Relly's Works, 2 vols., 
Rights of Women, Rambler, 4 vols., Rollin's Ancient History, 
8 vols., Robertson's America, 2 vols., Seneca's Morals, Self 

* In 1839. Jud^'e Barton, then of Worcester, presenteil to the library 
four large supplementary volumes of the Britisli EucyclopEedia with a 
volume of plates. In his accompanying note, addressed to Mr. Peter 
Butler, lie says: "In tendering it to your Association I sliall only make 
a small lint grateful return for the pleasure and benefit derived in the 
days of my boyhood from tlieir u.seful library." 



Schools and Libraries. 327 

Knowledge, Sliakespeare, 6 vols., S]>ectator, 8 vols., The Task, 
Thompson's Reasons, Teleniachus, 2 vols.. Thinks 1 to Myself, 
Yicar of Wakefield, Views of Religion, Whitney's History of 
Worcester County, Mr. Williams' Letters, Winchester's Let- 
ters. 

The names of the proprietors wei'e as follows : James 
Butler, Peter Butler, Lemuel Crane, Jonathan Davis, Rufus 
Davis, Abijah Davis, Nehemiah Davis, Stephen Davis, Jon- 
athan Davis, Jr., William T. F'isk, Asa Llarris, Samuel Harris, 
Jonas Hartwell, Bradford Hudson, Jeremiah Kingsbury, Samuel 
Kingsbury, Stephen Kingsbury, Sylvanus Learned, Abisha 
Learned, William Lamson, John Mayo, Richard Moore, 
Thomas Meriam, Jotham Meriam, John Pratt, John Put- 
nam, Amos Rich, Joseph Stone, William Sigourney, Samuel 
Ward. 

The share of Asa Harris was purchased by Sternes De Witt. 

Society Library. 

Li 1792, the church voted an appropriation of £30 from the 
Hagburn fund toward a new library. 

Rev. Mr. Dudley, the minister with Captain Elisha Davis, 
John Dana, Esq., and Captain Ebenezer Humphrey, were de- 
puted to purchase books. 

The following gentlemen not connected with the church be- 
came members : John Ballard, Jonas Eddy, Lemuel Crane, 
Anthony Sigt)urney, Simeon Kingsbury, Ebenezer Shu m way, 
Jr., Jesse Stone, of Ward, Allen Hancock, Amos Shumway, Jr., 
Joseph Hurd, Daniel Kingsbury, Ambrose Stone, Jr., Sylva- 
nus Town. 

In 1796, Sigourney sold his share in the library to Elias 
Pratt. 

A prudential committee of five gentlemen was chosen an- 
nually to manage the institution, and for the first twenty years, 



328 The Records of Oxford. 

Ebenezer Learned, EHslia Davis, Saiimel 1 1 arris, Lemuel Crane, 
John Ballard, Ebenezer Humphrey, Joseph Hurd, Joshua 
Turner, Jolin Dana, constituted this committee. 

In 1825, the churcli voted to replenish the library, and the 
name was changed from " Society Library " to " Second Social 
Library." Among the valualJe additions to the library were 
Scott's Bible, 6 vols,, Rollings History, several vols., Silliman's 
Travels, 3 vols., Massillon's Sermons. Kimpton's History of the 
Bible. 

The titles of works first produced were : Gibbon's Abridg- 
ment, 2 vols., Robertson's America, 2 vols., Guthrie's Gram- 
mar, Morse's Grammar, Dodd's Thoughts, Eordyce's Sermons, 
Paley's Philosophy, Citizen of the World, 2 vols., Blackstone's 
Commentaries, 4 vols., Webster's Essay, Paradise Lost, Night 
Thoughts, Beattie's Evidences, Beattie's Moral Science, Stack- 
house's History of the Bible, 6 vols.. The Taf^k, Edwards on 
the Will, Jennyn's View, Mason's Self Knowledge, Watts' 
Death and Heaven, Ramsay's History, Doddridge's Rise and 
Progress, Child's Friend, 2 vols., Minot's Insurrections, Keats' 
Pelevv Islands, Vicar of Wakeiield, Edwards on Sin, Edwards 
on Redemption, Gardiner's Life, Blair's Sermons, 2 vols., Bos- 
ton's Distinguished Characters, Edwards on the Affections, 
Edwards against Chauncey, The Spectator, 8 vols., Dodd- 
ridge's Sermons, Christian Theology, Pilgrim's Progress, 
Martin's Grammar, Newton on the Prophesies, 2 vols., 
Seneca's Morals, Hopkins on Holiness, Edwards on Virtue, 
American Preacher, 3 vols., Butler's Analogy, Price's Disserta- 
tions, Hervey's Meditations, Bigelow's Tour, 2 vols., Mil- 
lot's Elements, 5 vols., Locke's Essay, 2 vols., Ferguson's 
Astronomy. 

Some of the entries on the records of fines are quite sugges- 
tive of the olden time, as when Mr. Lemuel Crane "greased 
Blackstone ; " Peter Shumway " dropped tallow on the Ameri- 
can Preacher;" Silas Eddy "dropped tallow on and burnt 



Manufactures and Old Fashions. 329 

Stackhonso;" John Dana, ''a drop of the candle on book;" 
Amos Shuniway " hhirred (snuff) Josephiis." Fines for tahow 
drops were common. 

Fkee Pubijo Library. 

Judge Barton's will, dated 1 June, 1867, contained the fol- 
lowing : " One thousand dollars to the inhabitants of the 
town of Oxford, my native place, toward establishing a Free 
Public Liljrary in that town, as an inadequate return for the 
kindness and patronage of their Withers in my early professional 
life." 

This gift was formally accepted by the town in April, 1868. 

In November, 1869, on the report of a committee appointed 
in the preceding April to consider the subject, it was voted to 
organize a town library under the provisions of the State laws. 
In 1870 the library was established. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Manufactures and Old Fashions. 

Until 1530 all spinning was done by the distaff and spindle, 
but in that year a man in Germany invented the spinning- 
wheel. Qneen Elizabeth directed that laws should be passed 
in England to encourage manufacturing. 

In the early settlement of New England every farmer kept 
a flock of sheep for the wool, and when the wool shearing, came 
round after it was washed and carded, then it was spun and 
woven into cloth. 

The farmer's wife or house-maid took the wool and dyed it 
in the dye-pot standing in the corner of theiire-place, and when 
not in use this dye-pot was covered and answered for the pur- 
pose of a seat for children or servants. 
42 



330 The Records of Oxford. 

There was the carding of wool by hand into rolls, spinning 
then on a large wheel, walking to and fro through the long and 
Aveary days, turning the wheel with one hand, and holding the 
thread with the other. Then the yarn was reeled into skeins, dyed 
and washed, and put upon the warping-bars, and into the loom. 
Then each thread of the warp must be drawn through the 
"harness'' and through the "reed;" then the shuttle was 
thrown backward and forward, and the thread beaten in by 
the " lathe." 

The flax had been spread upon the green sward to decay dur- 
ing the rains of autumn. It had been bound in bundles ready 
for the breaking in a winter's day. 

It was pulled, dried and swingled by the farm laborer, but 
the farmer's wife or house-maid combed, spun, wove and 
bleached until the white linen was ready for family use, and 
when of extra fineness the linen sheets were packed away 
in lavender in huge chests for the marriage gift to some young 
maiden of the household. 

When the wardrobe and household linen of a maiden were 
completed the lover requested the domine to come and marry 
them. 

The mothers and daughters of the farmer or their maids 
toiled all the day wielding the hand-cards, throwing the 
shuttle or whirling the wheel, and then the carding, spinning, 
dying and weaving. 

And there was the weaving of linen for the household, the 
making of linsey-woolsey for gowns, or of all wool cloth for 
men's garments. 

Linsey-woolsey was a fabric made of wool and linen. Por- 
tions of the wool in yarn were dyed in colors and plaid, and 
striped cloths were thus manufactured for female dress, for every 
lady wore home-spun clothing. 

The spinning-wheel was set to humming at an early hour of 
the day. 



Manufactures aud Old Fashions. 331 

Children in olden time were trained in industrious habits; 
thej conld wind the quills and turn the reels, while the matrons 
and daughters or the maids accomplished their " day's work " 
at the loom or spinning-wheel. 

The weaving-room with all its comforts was the apartment 
in the farm-house resorted to by the children of the family. 

The quill-wheel, by which the shuttle-spools were bound with 
filling, was an attraction. 

Any woman who could spin, weave and embroider was con- 
sidered quite a treasure in those days away back in the first set- 
tlement of New England ; then the old loom made such a busy 
sound in the farm-house and cottage for " the farmer's wife or 
her maids used to run races in 'spinnin' 'and a weavin,' 'for 
all were master hands at spinnin.' " 

Then these industrious persons of a long afternoon (for they 
dined at an early hour) or of a long evening, for five o'clock teas 
were fashionable '\n these days, would s)>end a considerable 
piece of time together over their spinning-wheels "for folks 
spent a heap o' time spinning in these days." 

It is not known when the first fulling-mills were set up in 
Oxford, nor in the country, but they date far back into the last 
century. For many years in passing through the country towns 
and villages, one would see standing there deserted mills. 

The fulling-mill in its day became a necessity to the domes- 
tic manufactures, for it was impossible to full the cloth at the 
farm in as finished a style as desiralile. 

Then came the clothier's shop where the fulled cloth was 
dressed by teazles and shears (fixed on cylinders). 

Then there was much attention given to the dying the fab- 
rics, and among the favorite colors which were the fashion of 
the time a century since were deep blue, brown, snufi" color or 
butternut, and a shade of wine color. 

The clothiers felt an ambition in their business and ^ave a 
good appearance to the cloth that was sent to them for dress. 



332 TJie Records of Oxford. 

iVbout tlie same time cardiui>'-macliines, or mills run by water, 
were established in the country towns. Loads of fleeces went 
from the farm-liouses to tlie mills and came l)ack iiandsome 
roll^!, but still the spinning and weaving were done at the farm 
i)_y the farmer's wife or honse-maid on the old-fasliioned wheel 
and hand-loom. 

Samuel Slater's object in establishing mills in Oxford (this 
interior part of the country) was to introduce his yarn for 
weaving into cloth. The means for efi^ecting this improvement 
in manufactui-iug was to consign large quantities of yarn to the 
country traders, and they introduce the same to the weavers of 
the farm-house to be woven into cloth. It was considered a 
great acquisition in families to obtain this yarn for weaving. 

Until about the years 1808 to 1810 the manufacture of 
yarn into cloth was then only done in families upon the hand- 
loom and in such quantities as domestic necessity i-equired. 
The mode of weaving yarn into cloth by water power had not 
at this time been discovered. The farmer raised flax for summer 
use and bedding, and kept sheep for the product of wool for 
winter clothing. 

This flax and wool were spun into yarn and woven into cloth 
at the various farm-houses. These weavers had by necessity 
become skilled in the use of the hand-wheel and the hand- 
loom. The old life fashion went out of Oxford with the 
hand -looms. 

This business continued from 1812 to 1823, The manufac- 
ture of cotton into yarn was commenced in 1M3, The power- 
loom introduced in 1814 did not supersede the hand-loom iu 
this connection until about ten years later. 

But the carding, spinning and weaving in families for domestic 
purposes was not displaced by the power-loom for many years 
after the factories had ceased to emjiloy the hand-loom for 
weaving their yarn. The weaving of woolen yai-n by the 
manufacturers of wool cloths by the hand-loom was continued 



Manufactures and Old Fashions. 333 

till about 1823, when it was abandoned by substituting the 
power- loom for weaving these fabrics. In 1814 was com- 
menced in Oxford the making of broadcloths. 

In 1812, Samuel Slater had established himself in what was 
then Oxford,* and Oxford mechanics were employed by him. 
New enterprises claimed to utilize this experience, and so Ox- 
ford mechanics became the leaders in the new direction of 
labor and kept it until the wooden wheels were superseded by 
the iron wheels now in use. 

Samuel Slater had introduced spinning by power on niacliines 
he had made like those he had been familiar with in England. 
From this beginning, at about 1800, conmenced the mill-wright's 
business. Oxford was " the town of mill wrights ; almost every 
mechanic in the place was a mill-wright." 

"Israel Sibley by his energy and capability and business 
enterprise was at the head of tlie mechanic:: of which Oxford 
was the great center. He was the central figure among these 
skilled workmen of the town, who did more than any other to 
win and retain his reputation." 

Edward Howard, an Englishman, had commenced the manu- 
facture of woolen goods in Oxford, now Webster, in the interest 
of Samuel Slater the cotton manufacturer. 

" Young Sibley was employed in the fitting up of the estab- 
lishment, the arrangement of the machinery. Howard did not 
like some of the mills in use in this country, especially the 
'crank fulling-mills.' They used a bettor mill in England, 
and they made the best cloth there of any nation on the o-lobe 
so he tried to describe to young Sibley how it was made and 
how it worked. Of course the young mechanic did not understand 
much of the process of finishing woolen goods, but he could see 
how a machine cuuld be made to effect the result, and at 
Howard's suggestion he undertook to build one. The result was 
after some alteration a success in erecting an entirely new 

* Now Webster. 



334 ^'^^^ Records of Oxford. 

mill, and one that was destined to be the standard mill of 
his time. 

"Had he patented his invention there wonld have been a 
fortune in it, as it was, he was contented to let the public have 
the benefit of the mill without incumbrance. 

" The invention of the fulling stocks and fulling-mill began 
Sibley's successful career as a mill wriglit and his prominence 
as a master of mechanics in the country." 

Israel Sibley acquired a competency and retired from busi- 
ness with an income from his estate. He purchased a fine 
landed estate, located on the village street, with a pleasant old 
mansion house, presenting many attractions, near the site of 
where once was the residence of Dr. Alexander Campbell. He 
nuirried Miss Davis, the granddaughter of Elijah Davis, Esq., 
and he became one of the influential men of the town. He was 
a stockhokhn-, and for a series of years a director, in the Oxford 
Bank. He held impoi't:uit town offices, and represented the 
town in the Legislature. " He was quiet and unpretending in 
his manners and style of life. He was a man of few words, 
but of great executive ability, and hardly realized the power 
lie was in the community, and how much he contributed to 
the prosperity of the town and the advancement of its in- 
terests." 

In the ancient farm-houses of Oxford there was a large square 
chamber which was distinguished as the "weaving-room," with 
its south and south-western windows, which lengthened the 
hours of the day, and thus favored industry, as the mistress or 
maid sprung the shuttle and heaved the beam. 

This apartment presents itself as a picture of the past. The 
rooms in old-fashioned houses were of medium height when com- 
pared with the ])resent fashion. They were styled " low- 
browed," the huge chimney giving a tire-place in a corner of 
this weaving-room. A wood fire added to its cheerfulneps and 
comfort. 



Manufactures and Old Fashiotis. 335 

Tlien tliere were such piles of flannel and linen sheet- 
ini^, with taI)le-cloths and toweling and coverlets, woven in 
a variety of patterns of foreign daniask, showing great artistic 
skill. 

Then there were the various kinds of cloth and grades need- 
ful for family use, heavy woolen cloth for men's wear in the 
winter, and tow cloth for summer, woolen stuff, linsej woolsey 
and ginghams for women and children. 

There was also great attention given to weaving carpeting, 
the warp being spun wool of various colors, and the woof 
made of cast-oif winter clothing as a matter of economy, or 
remnants purchased of the tailors or tailoresses, cut in narrow 
strips and colored black or butternut brown. These carpets 
were of great simplicity, but wei'e in good taste. They were 
closely copied from Venetian carpeting, which was considered 
]jriceless for country wear, and then they were durable in their 
colors and were a combination of beauty and utility. 

Coverlets very artistically woven are still preserved as relics, 
also bed and table linen, domestic chintz, embroidered or plain, 
for bed hangings, flannel and woolen fabrics. 

For coverlets there were regular patterns for weaving. 
"Summer and winter" was a favorite. 

Miss Rebecca Mayo, of Oxford, was a person of no ordinary 
character or ability. Her presence was commanding, with a 
noticeable depth of character, not only by her powei-s of mind, 
but by her taste for embroidery and every feminine accomplish- 
ment of her time. 

Miss Rebecca was known to all the community — ' ' snch dainty 
linen as came from her hand, so firm in its texture and then so 
fine and white." " She had watched the flax in its blue blos- 
soms when it first appeared, she had wound its fibre on the dis- 
taff and spun and woven every thread herself, she had spread 
the web to bleach, and when all was completed it was laid away 
in the great store-chest." 



33^ The Records of Oxford. 

l>()nnlillon, the Ilugncnot named ])y Captaiu Humphrey, 
wlio remained in New Oxford after tlie re-settlement of the 
French, had abandoned the place. A tradition of the Mayo 
family states he was employed bj^ the English in printing 
the domestic fabrics used as dress goods for the English 
families. 

Mrs. L. PI. Sigourney narrates that in her own warbrobewere 
included articles of dress of choice domestic fabrics woven at 
her country home at Norwich, Ct., which she had in her extreme 
youth worn witli more satisfaction than she had since worn 
brocades, as court costume at presentations of royalty. 

Mrs. Sigourney at her own elegant mansiun in Hartford, Ct., 
introduced the spinning-wheel as a gratification to Mr. Sigour- 
ney and to her own refined taste. Mrs. Oldboro, the nurse of her 
children, in days long since, in leisure hours, engaged herself at 
the spinning-wheel. 

Before the Revolution there was little ambition for success 
in manufacturing extending beyond home consumption in the 
colonies, as it was the policy of the British government to sup- 
press manufacturing in all its branches beyond its own require- 
ments in the colonies. 

But one of the great advantages of the Revolution was claimed 
the commencement of an industrial as well as a political inde- 
pendence. 

During the time of the war of the Revolution Madam Wash- 
ington's influence in society as to style of dress was of severe 
j)lainness. It is said two of her dresses were of cotton, striped 
with silk, and entirely of domestic manufacture, for in her 
own home the spinning-wheels and looms were kept constantly 
going and her dresses were many times woven by her own 
waiting-maids. 

Tradition states General Washington at his first inaugura- 
tion wore a full suit of fine clothes, manufactured by his own 
household. 



Mamifactiires and Old FasJiions. 337 

Before the war it appears, bj an order sent to his agent in 
London, that General Wasliington was an admirer of nice ar- 
ticles of dress for a lady's wardrobe. 

Washington was ever mindful of the happiness of those de- 
pendent upon him. He had no children of his own, but he 
was devotedly attached to the children of Mrs. Washington by 
her tirst marriage. At onetime he sent to Mr. Cory, his agent 
in London, a long invoice of various matters needed for the 
large establishment at Mount Vernon. The list ends with 
"six little books and ten shiUirigs of toys for Master Custis, six 
years old," and " a fashionably-dressed baby, worth ten shillings, 
and ten shillings of other toys," for Miss Patty, aged four. On 
the arrival of the ship which contained these goods there must 
have been much excitement of the household over the unpack- 
ing of the welcome gifts; the childish ecstasy of Miss Patty over 
her London doll must have been extreme, as well as the pleas- 
ure of Madame Wasliington over an addition to her wardrobe, 
viz. : the " salmon-colored velvet, with satin flowers," and the 
"cap, kerchief, tucker and ruflies of Brussels or point, proper to 
wear with the same." And then the rejoicing of tlie children, 
white and black, over the pound of barley sugar and the fifteen 
pounds of rock candy which were included in the same list. 
Rock candy was then esteemed a sovereign remedy for a cold, 
and was also often used to sweeten tea and coffee. 

The Fashions of Dress in the Eighteenth Century. 

The ladies wore caps, long stiff stays, and high-heeled 
shoes. 

Their bonnets were of satin or silk, and usually black. 

Gowns were extremely long waisted, with tight sleeves, an- 
other fashion was, very short sleeves, with an immense frill at 
the elbow, leaving the rest of the arm naked. A large flexible 
hoop, three or four feet in diameter, was for some time quilted 
iujthe hem of the gown. A long, round cushion, stuffed with 
43 



33^ The Records of Oxford. 

hair or cotton and covered witli black crape, was laid across the 
head, over wliich the hair was combed back and fastened. 

It was the fashion for ladies to wear necklaces when in 
dress. Some of these necklaces were composed of pearls, to 
which a gold locket would be attached — and others were 
simply gold beads, thirty-nine in number, about the size of a 
small pea. 

In olden time, in full dress, ladies' shoes were made of satin 
and damask or of rich brocaded silk, the same as their dresses, 
with high wooden heels, afterward cork heels. 

The shoes were generally fashioned with straps with large 
silver buckles, which was the fashion of those days for ladies 
as well as gentlemen. For a more common article of shoes 
various stuffs were in use, such as leather, woolen cloth, shal- 
loon and russet. 

Though the people raised their own flax and wool, and made 
their own cloth, gentlemen universally purchased a suit of 
English broadcloth, and ladies purchased a rich brocade or an 
India chintz for a gown on grand occasions. 

Sheep-skins and buck-skins were dressed and made into 
breeches, as they were then styled, and were of nice quality, 
and worn by gentlemen. 

Gentlemen, in those days, wore hats with broad brims, turned 
up into three corners, with loops at the side; long coats with 
large pocket folds and cuffs, and without collars. The buttons 
were commonly plated, but sometimes of silver, often as large 
as half a dollar. Shirts had bosom and wrist ruffles, and all 
wore gold or silver shirt buttons at the wrist, united by a link. 
The waistcoat was long with large pockets ; and the neckcloth 
or scarf of fine white linen, muslin or figured stuff, broidered, 
and the ends falling loosely on the breast. The breeches 
were usually close, with silver buckles at the knees, with long 
gray stockings, which on hohdays were exchanged for black or 
white silk. 



Manufactures attd Old Fashions. 339 

Boots with broad white tops, or shoes with straps and large 
silver buckles, completed the costume of a gentleman. Clerg}-- 
men when in dress wore black silk stockings. 

All gentlemen who had reached the age of twenty-tive or 
thirty-five years had two wigs ; one for Sunday and one for 
ordinary every-day wear. 

The Sunday wig was very expensive and elaborate. The 
hair was shaven closely, that the wig might be fitted to the 
head. The dress wig sometimes rose a foot above the head 
and came down on either side the head to the waist. 

All elderly people who wore wigs usually removed them in 
the church during service, and supphed their place with a plain 
linen cap, or one knit of cotton or linen and of woolen in the 
winter; a small tassel on the top of the cap was the only orna- 
ment; clergymen when they made visits on their parishioners, 
removed the wig and hung it upon the pegs or heavy nails on 
the paneling of the walls ; when leaving the cap was laid aside 
and the wig resumed its place. 

Coat, vest, knee-breeches, of the long-waisted, single-breasted, 
large pocket-flapped kind were counted style in those days. 
They were made of snuff- brown silk of the quality of Mrs. Vi- 
car Wakefield's wedding gown, that was bound to wear well. 

Three-cornered cocked hats, plum-colored, crimson, green 
and purple velvet coats, embroidered waistcoats, buckles, 
powdered wigs and pig-tails, all were the going fashion previous 
to the Revolution. But these fashions were now waniner. 

Soon after the War of the Revolution the fashion of weariner 
wigs by gentlemen was discontinued, though some elderly 
gentlemen wore them till the commencement of the present 
century. 

Gentlemen wore their hair in a queue, the front hair being 
brushed straight over the forehead. 

Tailors and tailoresses went from house to house to make the 
clothing for men, with their shears and long pockets. The 



340 TJie Records of Oxford. 

coarse tow cloth was made into rough but durable clothing for 
workiugineu. 

Simplicity in dress, manners and equipage characterized these 
New England homes until quite a number of years after the 
Eevolutionary War. As wealth increased broadcloth and silk 
began to take the place of home-spun. 

Woolen and linen fabrics constituted the clothing. A silk 
dress then lasted a life-time and descended as an heir-loom from 
mother to daughter. Furs were quite common as there were 
so many wild animals. Bear skin muffs were the fashion. Strips 
of the bear skin were sewed alternately to silk or linen goods, 
as the skins were too heavy to be used as a whole. Black and 
white fox skins were in great demand and tine sets of European 
sable were common. 

The visit of Lady Washington was noticed in the newspapers 
and one of her receptions described. 

" Most of the ladies were arrayed in ^orcreous brocade and 
taffeta luxuriously displayed on hoops with comely bodices laced 
around that ancient armour, the stay, disclosing most perilous 
waists, and with sleeves that clung to the arm as far as the 
elhow, when they took a graceful leave in ruffles, their hair all 
drawn back over cushions and falling in cataracts upon the 
shoulders, in shoes with forinidible point to the toe and high 
tottering lieels painfully cut in wood, with their tower built hats 
crowned with tall feathers." 

In a gentleman's style of dress the ruff gave place to the 
fashion of the falling collar, which began to increase in size as 
extravagantly as the ruff had done, until it was as big as a 
cape, made of the most expensive lace that could be woven. 
On the restoration of the Stuarts, Charles II and his court 
resumed the lace collar, but of more moderate dimensions. 
Gradually the collar became liniper and liniper until it disap- 
peared, and a wisp of lawn, linen or lace took its place, and 
when tied loosely in a knot it was quite a graceful fashion, but 



Manufactures and Old Fashions. 341 

little by little the plain collar became the style with all its 
numerous changes of fashion. 

During the time of the protector the Round Heads were as 
well known by their cropped hair and severe simplicit}^ in 
dress as the Cavaliers had been by the extravagance of their 
attire. Their rich low collars were doomed to oblivion, and 
a plain piece of turned-down linen was adopted by the 
Puritans. 

Samuel Slater* may be regarded as the founder of the town 
of Webster, as through the introduction of liis manufacturing 
establishments of cotton and woolen fabrics, its population has 
been increased and its commercial celebrity has been established. 

On young Slater's arrival in New York, he sought the 
patronage of Moses Brown of Providence, R. 1. , a gentleman ex- 
tensively known in the country, and finally secured a partner- 
ship in business with Mr. Almy, the son-in-law of Mr. Brown. 

He was styled the father (or founder) of the cotton manu- 
facture of the United States. In October, 1791, some of the 
yarn first spun, and some of the cotton cloth first made from 
his yarn in America, was sent to the secretary of the United 
States to be preserved in the Treasury department. 

In the year 1832 the town of Webster was formed from the 
towns of Dudley and Oxford with the territory of Oxford, 
known for many years as " Oxford South Gore," and another 
tract belonging to the Pegan Indians (a remnant tribe of the 
Nipmucks), which they had received from the town of Dudley 
for their relinquishment of certain rights to land located on 

* Samuel Slater was a native of Belper, Derbyshire, England. He 
left for London September 1, 1789. On the 1,3th sailed for New York, 
and, after sixty-six days, arrived in that city. When ready to sail he des- 
patched a letter by the post to his mother, informing her he had left 
England for the United States, thus avoiding the parting scene. His 
father died when he was but fourteen years of age. Samuel Slater 
was born June 28, 1768. He died in Oxford (now Webster) April 20, 
1835. 



342 The Records of Oxford. 

Dudley hill, which was part of the laud known formerly as 
'Black, James & Co.'s Grant," surveyed to them in 1684. 

This reservation was equal to about five miles square, made 
by the ancestors of these Indians in their deed procured by 
Hon. William Stou^hton and Joseph Dudley, agents of the 
colony."^ 

Through the introduction of both cotton and woolen manu- 
facture its chief prosperity and population has been introduced. 

It is a subject of historical interest to ascertain b}" what 
means Mr. Slater became acquainted with the water-power at 
this place. 

Mr. James Tiffany, of South Brimfield (now Wales), in 
Massachusetts, in often visiting Providence and Pawtucket, 
formed an acquaintance with Samuel Slater and his cotton 
manufacture at Pawtucket. Mr. Slater became interested in the 
young sons of Mr. Tiffany who were well educated for the time. 

Mr. Tiffany recognizing Mr. Slater's superior business talents, 
requested him to take his sons and educate them for a mercan- 
tile position. On the father's recommendation alone Mr. Slater 
consented that one of the sons should be sent to him on trial. 
Soon after the eldest, Lyman, made his appearance at Paw- 
tucket, and soon proved himself to be all the fond father had 
recommended, and became a favorite in Mr. Slater's family. 
Bela, a second son of Mr. Tiffany, soon followed his brother in 
Mr. Slater's care, and proved himself capable and satisfactory 
in the performance of the trust confided to him. 

* " Six years after the close of the war, Eliot could claim but four 
towns in the State." One of these was Chaubunagungamaug (now 
Webster).— Drake, 179. 

Rev. John Eliot, 1688, gives the name of the large pond as " Chabana- 
kongkomun." The nearest approach to a translation of the word is 
found in a collection of the Connecticut Historical Society (documents) 
by I. H. Trumbull, and was given as "The boundary fishing place," as 
the lake formed the boundary between the Nipmucks and Mulhekans, 
and was resorted to by both nations. 



Manufactures and Old Fashions. 343 

Mr. Slater to effect his plans, manufacturing establishments 
were to be erected in the country; he had made inquiry as to 
some suitable locations, when his friend Tiffany described to 
him the valuable water-power afforded by the outlet of the 
Chabanakongkomun pond.* 

Mr. Tiffany, in his journeyings to and from Pawtucket and 
Providence, passed and repassed this outlet, which at that time 
was the principal way of travel, the more direct roads having 
since been opened for travel. 

With the recommendation of this water-power by Mr. Tif- 
fany, Mr. Slater despatched young Tifiiany, then in his employ, 
in May, 1811, who, having examined the premises, writes Mr. 
SI ater as follows : 

Fbanexin, May 27, 1811. 
Mr. Samuel Slatek : 

Dear Sir. — I was very much disappointed when I arrived at 
Mr. End's in Uxbridge, for I had no information of the cause 
why you were not there. True the letter came Friday night, 
but tlirough mistake, being brought after I had retired, was 
put into the post-office, and when I returned on Sunday morn- 
ing (having been up to the pond), it was taken out of the office, 
and fortunately I found it ; but I thought it best to pursue the 
intended journey, by which I could in some measure satisfy 
myself, which is as follows : 

Buildings — Large two-story house unfinished inside, built 
for two families ; grist-mill with two run of stones, tolerably 
good ; a very good saw-mill, and a trip-hammer shop in good 
repair, 11 with about 13 or 14 acres of land, one-half of which 
is swamp of very little value, and the rest not very good. 
With regard to water and fall, there is no doubt enough to 

*Lake Chabanakongkomun is a beautiful lake which extends over an 
area of 1,200 acres of land. The shores and its heavily wooden islands 
add much to the beauty of scenery. 



344 The Records of Oxford. 

answer any purpose we should want, and so situated that a 
mill may be erected with as little expense as in any place I 
have seen; it is convenient to the road, and I believe quite 
secure from inundation. 

The principal objection, in my opinion, is that it is the most 
benighted part of the globe, 4 miles from Oxford, 3 from Dud- 
ley, 6|- from Thompson, where the corners of the three towns 
intersect each other. 

Terms are as follows : Four thousand dollars are the lowest 
terms ; one thousand dollars down, in two years one thousand 
more, and then one thousand yearly until balance is paid or if 
at the expiration of one year the residue is paid that is the 
three thousand dollars, a deduction of one hundred will be 
made, which I consider no object. I have the refusal at the 
above stipulation until the 20th of June, but he said it would 
oblige him if we could determine soon, as two men were ex- 
pected to look at the place the 20th instant, who had seen it 
before and solicited him to join tliem and erect a mill but he 
said he preferred to sell right out, as a farm life would be most 
agreeable to himself and family, and says that if I will sell my 
farm he will look at it, and did it suit him, give a fair price, 
which will be some advantage to me, because it will almost pay 
him for the privilege. There is a farm adjoining the mill site 
of about 220 acres of land, a dwelling-house and barn, for sale, 
for about $3,000, which, if it should be wanted, may be had, 
and which may be worth very near that money. If you feel 
desirous to have the place, you will please write me, for 1 told 
him he should hear from me within that time, one way or the 
other. 

Your obedient serv^ant, 

Bela Tiffany. 

This valuable water- power afforded by the outlet of Chabana- 
kongkomun lake was purchased by Samuel Slater. 



Manufactures and Old Fashions, 345 

"With Mr. Slater's approval of purchasing this water-power 
and some adjoining lands, the purchases were made in Mr.Tif- 
fany's individual name; bought of three different parties — 9J 
acres in two parcels, of Elisha Pratt, for the consideration $3,700. 

One of these parcels of four acres contained a dwelling-house 
and barn, grist-mill and saw-mill, a trip-hammer shop, coal- 
house, and an old building formerly a grist-mill. 

The date of this first is " January 6, 1812," and, as expressed 
in this deed, the land was located partly in each, Dudley and 
Oxford. 

The second purchase was 203 acres, situated in the towns of 
Dudley and Oxford, bought of Asa and Samuel Robinson, with 
the buildings, for the consideration of $3,500, by deed dated 
" January 28, 1812." 

A third lot was bought of Josiah Kingsbury, of 56 acres, 
with a dwelling-house, and clothing-mill thereon, for the con- 
sideration of $1,800, by deed dated "May 4, 1812." 

The three purchases contained 268| acres of land, with the 
aforesaid buildings and mills, giving the entire control of the 
outlet and water-power connected with the large pond before 
named, were secured, for the total sum of $9,000. Mr. Bela Tif- 
fany sold to Samuel Slater five-sixths of all this estate at the pre- 
cise cost to him, $7,500, making a joint-interest to be held in 
common and undivided, he reserving one-sixth for himself. 
This deed is dated " lltii of December, 1812," and witnessed 
by Samuel A. Hitchcock and Lorin Tiffany, who were at that 
time there acting in the capacity of clerks for Slater & Tiffany. 

The cotton-factory, known as the " Green mill," was 
erected during the year 1812, and the manufacture of cotton 
into yarn was first begun here in 1813. 

It appears that the dye and bleaching buildings were built 
at the same time, and placed under the care of Mr. John Ty- 
son from England, who, it appears, held a joint interest in the 
business. Mr. Tyson continued connected with the dye-house 
44 



34^ The Records of Oxford. 

business from seven to eight years — his health became im- 
paired, and after one or more voyages to Bermuda for relief, he 
died of consumption August 2, 1821. 

In about 1814 Samuel Slater commenced the woolen manufac- 
ture. At this time was commenced the making of broadcloths 
under the charge of Edward Howard, who came from England. 

Edward Howard it is said or believed was among the first — 
if not exclusively so — to introduce the manufacture of Ameri- 
can broadcloth. 

Mr. Slater's business here had been confined to the water- 
power connected with the Chabanakongkomun pond, at the 
East village, but this year, 1821, associated with Mr. Howard, 
he made a location upon the French river, now known as the 
South village. 

Messrs. Slater & Tiffany, besides the management of the 
cotton manufacture and dying and bleaching business, a store 
was added, and thus further purchases of real estate continued. 
The great depression in the cotton manufacture which followed 
the close of the war between Great Britain and the United 
States, December, 1814, consequent upon the large importation 
of English manufactures, caused Mr. Tiffany to sell all his in- 
terest in this business to Mr. Slater. The date of deed '' No- 
vember 27, 1816." 

Mr. Bela Tiffany, after retiring from his partnership wnth 
Mr. Slater, entered upon the commission sale of American cot- 
ton and wool manufactures in Boston and New York, and after 
retiring from business he became a resident of Southbridge, 
became interested in forming the Southbridge bank, and many 
public improvements. He died June 29, 1851, aged 65 years. 

July 18, 1821, Edward Howard bought land of William 
Wakefield and Gibbs Dodge, executors of Solomon Wakefield. 
Another tract of William Wakefield. And a third tract from 
David Wakefield, and a fourth tract, a wood lot ; bought of 
Daniel Mansfield a tract of land. 



Manufactures and Old Fashions. 347 

This embraced several mills and buildings, where the woolen 
works are now located. 

The business was now conducted here in the name of Slater 
& Howard. Slater & Howard purchased tracts of additional 

land. 

Slater & Howard purchased the village factory estate, Nov. 
6, 1824. Dana A. Braman, William M. Benedict and Jason 
Waters. Together with the village factory, dwelling-houses 
and the water privilege belonging to the cotton, woolen and 
linen manufacturing company, reference being had to the deed 
of Samuel Waters, and others to above village factory company. 

Village Factory Sale. 

To this estate was added additional purchase, in which was 
included the Peter Pond wood lot of about twenty acres, on the 
west side of French river. 

The style of this firm was Slater & Howard. January 2, 
1829, Edward Howard sells to Samuel Slater of Oxford, 
George B. Slater and Horatio Nelson Slater, his one undivided 
half of the property of the woolen manufacturing company. 

This includes all the water power supplied by the French 
river within the limits of Webster. 

" It may be said that Bela Tifi"any, John Tyson and Edward 
Howard were the chief managers in executing the plans of Mr. 
Slater, in founding the principal business of Webster, and that 
which furnishes its chief prosperity and growth as a town." 

It appears that after the Revolutionary War Eev. Samuel 
Waters and other Baptist clergymen preached occasionally. In 
1790 the east part of the town was the principal place of hold- 
ino- services. In 1798 a reorganization of this church took place 
in the east part of Dudley, which subsequently became the town 
of Webster, and Solomon Wakefield was ordained as their 
minister. Its principal members were Joseph Wakefield, Will- 
iam Wakefield, Paul Robinson, Silas Robinson. 



34^ The Records of Oxford. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Inter-Colonial Wars. 

I. King WilliavnDs War. 

There is found, dated April, 1690, a quaint old agreement 
among the " Bernon Papers." Gabriel Bernon,"^ the president of 
the Huguenot settlement of Oxford, enters upon an agreement 
with one Jean Barre, a fellow refugee, promising to furnish 
him with " one fire-lock muskett of three pounds valeu, one pis- 
toll of twenty shil 1 ings price, one Carthuse Boxe of three shillings 
one hatchet of two shillings," and other necessaries, besides 
three pounds in money, " for his now intended voyage on Board 
the good shij)p called the I^orke^ine, Capt. Ciprian Southack, 
commander, now bound to sea in a war fareing voyage." 
Captain Southack was a Boston skipper, who became noted 
at a later day for his success in breaking up piracy. 

The " good ship Porcupine " belonged to the fleet that was 
then getting ready to sail from Boston harbor, under Sir Wil- 
liam Phipps ; and the " war fareing voyage " in question was the 
expedition for the capture of Port Royal, in Nova Scotia, 
which Massachusetts sent forth in the spring of the year 1690, 
preliminary to the enterprise then on foot for the conquest of 
Canada. 

The expedition for the capture of Port Royal was thor- 
oughly successful, and it aM'akened eager hopes in Boston for 
the more important undertaking of which this was but the first 
step — the attack about to be made upon Quebec. 

None were more keenly interested in these movements than 
the newly-arrived Huguenots in Boston. 

During King William's War in 1690, in the winter, most of 

* Gabriel Bernon, the founder of Oxford, Mass. 



The Inter-Colonial Wars. 349 

the frontier settlements in Maine and New Hampshire were de- 
stroyed by the French and Indians, and in other parts of the 
country. 

Sir William Phipps commanded a small fleet from Massa- 
chusetts Bay, and captured the old French settlement of Port 
Royal in Nova Scotia. 

Rev. Grindal Rawson* went as a chaplain with the fleet, " re- 
ceiving his appointment from the Governor, confirmed by both 
houses, July 31, 1690," to accompany the general and forces to 
carry on the worshipping of God in that expedition." 

A translation of a letter written in French in 1691 : 

"Our fleet," wrote Benjamin Faneuil, in great glee, on the 
2-2d of May, to Thomas Bureau in London, " which we sent 
out from here to take Port Royal, has sent back a ketch, which 
has arrived this day, with news of the taking of the place. 
On capitulation they have seized six ketches or brigantines, 
loaded with wine, brandy and salt, together with the governor 
and seventy soldiers, and have demolished the fort. They 
have also taken twenty-four very fine pieces of cannon and 
tlurty barrels of powder. We expect them hourly. Our fleet, 
which was composed of six vessels, one of which carried forty 
guns, will be re-enforced with a number of strong ships, and 
will be sent with twelve hundred men and some Indians to 
take Canada. I hope it will succeed." f 

In 1696 Gabriel Bernon, son of the refugee, was engaged in 
trade between Boston, Portsmouth and Port Royal with 
Charles de La Tour, who resided at Port Royal. 

De La Tour, in November or December of that year, " was 
arrested when about to proceed from Portsmouth to Acadia 

* Rev. Grindal Rawson was the son of Edward Rawson (Secretary of 
State) and the ancestor of John Rawson, who became a resident of Oxford 
(now Webster) in 1774. 

fSir William Phipps commanded this fleet, and it is said returned to 
Boston, having " obtained considerable booty." 



350 The Records of Oxford. 

or Nova Scotia — just then under British rule — and his sloop 
was condemned as a lawful prize, under charge of having vio- 
lated one of the provisions of the oppressive navigation laws, 
as well as a recent enactment of the colonial legislature of 
Massachusetts, that prohibited all commerce between that 
colony and Nova Scotia. This enactment, which had been in- 
spired by the suspicion that the French — then at war with 
England — obtained supplies at Port Royal, bore very heavily 
on the Acadians, who depended so greatly for subsistence upon 
their dealing; with New England." 

" You can well see," wrote young Bernon to his father, then 
in England, "from the manner in which this people treat 
us, that it will be impossible for us to live any longer among 
them without strong recommendation to the governor, who is 
expected soon. They commit the greatest possible injustice 
toward the inhabitants of Acadia ; for whilst they assume to 
take them under their protection, they pass laws that condemn 
them to perish with cold and hunger ; and if they do any thing 
contrary to the interests of the English, they punish them as 
subjects of the king of England." — Bevnon Papers.* 

II. Queen Anne's War. 

The peace of Ryswick did not long continue. In 1702 Eng- 
land declared war against France and Spain, and the American 
colonies were engaged in the contest called in America Queen 
Anne's War. After continuing eleven years this was closed 
by a treaty made in 1713 at Utrecht, a town in Holland. 

III. The Spanish War. 

In October, 1739, after some quarter of a century had passed, 
England and Spain were engaged in war with each other. 

During the contest England called upon her American colo- 
nies to furnish soldiers to aid an English fieet, and in captur- 

* Huguenot Emigration, vol. 1, p. 140. 



The Inter-Colonial Wars. 351 

ing Spanish settlements in the West Indies. Four tliousand 
men were furnished from the colonies. 

The enterprise terminated disastrously to the English, and 
but a few hundred men ever returned to their homes. 

There is no record of men furnished for this war.* 

lY. King Georges War. 

The Spanish War of 1739 bad merged into King George's 
War. The capture of Louisbnrg, situated on the island of 
Cape Breton, from the French, was the most important event 
of this war, as it commanded the entrance to the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence. 

In the summer of 1745 it was taken by an army from New 
England under command of Sir William Pepperell of Maine, 
aided by an English fleet that sailed from Boston. 

King George's War ended in 1748 by the treaty of Aix-la- 
Chapelle. 

The French held a strong line of posts from the St. Lawrence 
to the mouth of the Mississippi. The French were strongly 
allied with the Indians, and announced their claims by nailing 
to the trees and sinking in the earth leaden plates bearing the 
arms of France. 

This State contributed forces to the army which laid siege to 
Louisburg. Oxford and the neighboring towns shared in the 
excitement which prevailed in the colonies. April 7, 1745 : 
" This day is a fast day to implore of God his mercy and smiles 
on our expedition to Cape Breton against Louisburg, the 
stronghold of the French on that island." July 18 : A public 
thanksgiving was held "on ye occasion of ye taking of Cape 

*Ebenezer Waters, son of Richard Waters, Esq., formerly of Salem, 
subsequently of Manchung farm, adjacent to Oxford, now in Sutton, was 
on this expedition under Admiral Yernon, and died at Cuba. At his 
decease a valuable gun belonging to him was returned to his friends, 
and is still retained as a relic with a descendant of the Waters family. 



7^2 The Records of Oxford. 

Breton." Od the return of the army to Boston the soldiers 
were received with transports of joy, 

French and Indian War. 

Early in the spring of 1755 General Braddock landed in 
Virginia with two British regiments. He had been appointed 
commander-in-chief of all the forces in the provinces. Four 
expeditions were planned. These were to be sent against Fort 
Duquesne, Nova Scotia, Crown Point and Niagara. 

The force which went against the French on the Ohio was 
led by Braddock himself, Colonel Washington acting as an 
aide-de-camp. The British general was ignorant of Indian 
warfare, yet too self-confident to heed the prudent counsels 
which Washington gave him. When within a few miles of 
Fort Duquesne, his army was surprised July 9 by a small party 
of French, with their Indian allies, and routed with terrible 
slaughter. Braddock was mortally wounded. 

Capt. Ebenezer Learned, a son of Lieut.-Col. Ebenezer 
Learned of Oxford, in 1756, with his company of soldiers, 
marched to the seat of war, and as a part of Col. Buggies' regi- 
ment was in camp Sept. 9 at Lake George. 

At this time in Oxford there were two companies of militia, 
commanded, respectively, by Edward Davis and Samuel 
Davis, brothers, from both of which soldiers were furnished 
in a new company under Capt. Learned. 

While preparations for the northern expedition were in pro- 
gress Col. Chandler wrote to the authorities at Boston as follows : 

" Worcester, April 22, 1756. 

" The bearer, Capt. Ebenezer Learned, is to have command 
of a company of men in Col. Buggies' regiment, and as guns 
and stores will be wanted for his company he will engage to 
bring them up if you please. * * * What Learned 
engages to do will be faithfully done." * 

* Massachusetts Archives, LXXV, 536. 



The Inter-Colonial Wars. 353 

Tlie following are the names of soldiers from Oxford : 

Ebenezer Learned, captain ; ElishaRich (Sutton), lieutenant; 
Elijah Towne, sergeant. Privates: Joseph Baker, Solomon 
Smellige. Ebenezer Davis, John Barnes, Elijah Curtis, Heze- 
kiah Eddy, Samuel Manning, Jonathan Eddy, Isaac Learned, 
Jr., C.u'l) Barton. Jr., Stephen Shnmway, Samuel Baker, 
Josiah iving^Liury, Jr. 

Philip Richardson's company, August, 1756, in Rnggles' 
regiment: Enoch Jones, sergeant; Noah Mclntire; Philip 
Mclntire; Captain Dresser, Charlton District. 

Tradition states that Rev. John Campbell was styled " Old 
Col. Campbell " at this time, and was mnch interested in Capt. 
Learned and his soldiers who left Oxford to join Col. Ruggles' 
regiment stationed at Lake George, and personally had ably 
seconded Capt. Learned by his knowledge of the science of 
military tactics. 

Mr. Campbell was called " as great a swordsman as he was 
a gownsman." He was also a proficient in fencing. 

Fort William Henry taken August 3, 1757. Marquis de 
Montcalm laid siege and compelled its garrison to surrender. 

The prisoners were promised safe escort to the English fort, 
held by Gen. Webb, but the savages fell on them as they be- 
gan their march, and the French officers were unable to pre- 
vent them from being plundered, and some of them were 
massacred. The militia of Massachusetts hastened to their 
rescue. 

August 10. Detachments from the two Oxford companies 
marched as far as Sheffield, one hundred and five miles, and 
were out sixteen days. 

First detachment, date of roll, August 18: Edward Davis, 
captain ; John Edwards, lieutenant ; Jeremiah Learned, ensign ; 
Jedediah Barton, sergeant ; Joseph Edwards, sergeant ; John 
Town, sergeant ; Phinehas Ward, corporal ; Moses Town, cor- 
poral ; Alexander Nichols, Jacob Comins, Ebenezer Eddy, 
45 



354 ' The Records of Oxford. 

John Wiley, William Eddy, Joseph Phillips, Jr., Israel Phil- 
lips (" detached and sent to Stockbridj^e "), Daniel Fairfield, 
John Duncan, Hezekiah Merriam, Jr., Jonathan Phillips, Silas 
Town, Samuel Lamed, Ebeuezer Gale, Jr., Josej)h Gleason, 
Samuel Eddy, Jr., Elisha Gleason, Moses Gleason, Jr., Joseph 
GofTgins (" detached and sent to Stockbiidge "), Josiah Wol- 
cott, Aaron Parker, Edmund Town, Joseph Pratt, Jesse Pratt, 
IJ^atlian Sliumway, David Pi'att, privates. 

The second detachment : Samuel Davis, captain ; John 
Larned, captain ; Elisha Davis, sergeant ; John Nichols, ser- 
geant ; Amos Shnmway, sergeant; William Parker, sergeant; 
Jeremiah Shumway, corj^oral ; John Davis, corporal ; Thomas 
Town, Isaac Larned, Jonas Coller, John Shumway, William 
Nichols, John Barton, Jonathan Fuller, Ichabod Town, Joseph 
Pratt, Jr., Stephen Jewett, Joseph Davis, Benjamin Hudson, 
John Marvin, Isaac Town, Adams Streeter, Arthur Humphrey, 
Peter Shnmway, Joseph Kingsbury, Jeremiah Kingsbury, 
Roger Amidown, Abijah Harris, Zebnlon Streeter, John Dana, 
Samuel Manning, John Watson, John Robbins, John Coburn, 
John Shumway, Jr., William Comins, William Learned, 
Joseph Wilson, John Moore, privates. 

The company were mounted and marched under Oapt. Davis 
to Springfield, and thence to Sheffield under Capt. Larned. 

In October, 1757, Capt. John Larned with twenty-nine men, 
of whom twelve were of Oxford, called the "Minute Expedi- 
tion," marched as far as Westfield, being out from October 20 
to NovemI)er 11 — three weeks and two days. 

Roll: John Larned, captain ; Jonathan (?) Nichols, lieuten- 
ant; Jacob Cummins, sergeant ; Jeremiah Shumway, corporal ; 
Joseph Davis, John Duncan, Ebeuezer Fish, Nathan Moore, 
Ebenezer Eddy, William Lamb, John Nichols, Elijah Larned, 
Arthur Humphrey, privates. 

A roll of Capt. Joshua Meriam, North Gore, September 26, 
1758, gives: Joshua Meriam, captain; Uriah Stone, clerk; 



The Inter 'Colonial Wars. 355 

Isaac Hartwell, Robert Meriam, Hezeziali Eddy, Elijah Cur- 
tis, Ebenezer Lock, Paul Wheelock, Wheelock, Jonas 

Hammond, Ebenezer Hammond, John Thompson, David 
Wheelock, eorjjoral ; Nehemiah Stone, corporal ; Jesse Smith, 
Elijah Stoddard, Aaron Thompson, Uriah Ward, Simon Morj, 

Zenas Mory, Asa Jones, Malachi Partrige, Peter W n, 

Joseph Parker, Job Weld. 

These were in service 1757, marched to relieve the province 
forts, went to Sheffield, were out eight days and returned. 

Sheffield, August 15, 1757, 
Capt. Merriam — Upon fresh advice from Gen. Webb your 
further Proceeding on your march appears innecessary, and 
the Exigency of the affairs of many of your Company urge 
their Return home. You are hereby ordered to march them 
to ye country Gore, all except Zenas Morey, and Discharge 
them unless you Receive Counter orders afterwards, for which 
this shall be your sufficient Warrant. 

Gard'r Chandler, Major. 

Feb. 6, 1760. Capt. Jeremiah Learned' s company includes 
the following : Jeremiah Learned, captain ; Jonathan Holman 
of Sutton, lieutenant ; William Lamb, Samuel Learned, Reu- 
ben Barton, corporals ; David Pratt, Jr., Thomas Eddy, Ed- 
ward Davis, Jr., Hezekiah Meriam, Jr., Samuel Manning, Jr., 
Ebenezer Lamb, privates. All of Oxford. 

This company, most of the members of which were from 
Charlton and Sutton, was in 1760 at Ticonderoffa. 

Other Oxford men, known to have been in the service, were : 
Israel Whitney, in Cape Breton expedition, 1745 ; Jonas 
Gleason, Cape Breton expedition, January, 1752; William 
Campbell, in Louisburg expedition, 1758 ; Naphtali Streeter, 
1759 ; Richard Rogers, 1760 ; Edmund Barton, Samuel Call 
(Jacob and Josiah Towne, sons of Jonathan Towne, were at 



35^ The Records of Oxford. "" ^ 

Foi't EdwiirJ 1755 ; Jacob died af, Fort Edward, and was 
buried in the woods by his brother Josiah. John Streeter died 
November, 1756, at Sheffield), Benjamin Davis (Lieut. Samuel 
Jennison, 1756, not from Oxford). 

On a roll of Capt. McFarland's company, February 3, 1761 : 
Abijah Gale, Micah Pratt, Abraliam Pratt, Nathaniel Smith, 
Reuben, son of Oliver Shumway, William Lackey and Joseph 
Goggins. All of Oxford. 

1758. A return of men enlisted in John Chandler's regiment 
for the invasion of Canada, under Gen. Amherst : John Boyle, 
Elijah Town, Abraham Pratt, William Lackey, sergeant ; Joseph 
Goggins, Moses Town, Solomon Comings, Samuel Streeter, 
Abijah Gale, John Duncan, Nathan Moore, David Towne, 
John Ballard, Abel Levens, Peter Shumway, Jonathan Phil- 
lips, Elijah Larned, Richard Moore, 3d, Zebulon Streeter. All 
of Oxford. 

In 1759 the following men of Oxford were enlisted in the 
expedition against Crown Point : Samuel Davis, Capt. John 
Learned, Capt. Elisha Davis, Sergt. John Nichols, Sergt. 
Amos Shumway, Sergt. Wm. Parker, Sergt. Jeremiah Shum- 
way, Corp. John Davis, Corp. Ebenezer Learned, Elijah Town, 
Jolm Wiley, Jr., Hezekiah Eddy, Jonathan Eddy, Stephen 
Shumway, Caleb Barton, Jr., Ebenezer Davis, Samuel Mann- 
ing, Solomon Smiledge, Isaac Learned, Jr., John Barnes, Wm. 
Simpson, George Alverson, Caleb Barton, Peter Shumway, 
Elisha Blandin, Francis Blandin, Jonas Blandin, Ezekiel Col- 
ler, Solomon Cook, El)enezer Robbins, Joseph Philips, Josiah 
Kingsbury, Joseph Bacon, Elisha Ward, Arthur Daggett, 
Elijah Kingsbury. 

On a roll of Capt. Newliall's company, Leicester, are 
Joseph Goggins, Joseph Kingsbury, Israel Phillips, Zebulon 
Streeter. All of Oxford. 

Joseph Goggins was in Capt. White's company, and served 
through the campaign. 



r ' The Inter-Colonial Wars. 357 

July, 1758, Canada siuTeiideied. A lar^e fleet aided the 
array of Gen. Amherst, who was sent to capture Louisburg. 
The fortress was won by the English. The whole island of 
Cape Breton was reduced, for Louisburg, the key of the 
Canadas, was taken. 

In July, 1759, Niagara yielded, and a few weeks later 
Ticonderoga was surrendered and Crown Point abandoned. 

September 13, Gen. Wolfe's victory at Quebec. 

September 6, 1760, Gen. Amherst assembled a large force 
before Montreal, and two days later French dominion in 
Canada ended, and " all that magniticent structure which the 
genius of Champlain and the patient labors of the French 
Jesuits had devotedly raised, vanished." 

In 1755 the expedition against Acadia, or Nova Scotia, cap- 
tured the French forts in that province, and the entire country 
east of the Penobscot became subject to the British authority. 
But this success was disgraced by cruelty. Several thousands 
of these French colonists were accused of disloyalty to the 
English, and were driven on board ships by British soldiers. 
These unfortunate people were taken from their homes, and 
many were separated from their friends never to meet again. 

These French prisoners were scattered throughout the colo- 
nies. Many families came to Worcester county, and some 
were consigned to Oxford and other towns. 

On June 2,1757, Duncan Campbell of Oxford represented 
to the General Court " that the selectmen of Newton hound 
out to him five children of some of the late inhabitants of Nova 
Scotia ; that on his placing them at Worcester their parents fol- 
lowed them there, and as the result they all went away." Ask- 
ing allowance, on which was voted him 42 shillings, 3^ pence. 

In November Mr. Campbell presented another memorial set- 
ting forth that : " Last May session [hej preferred a petition 
to the honorable court that £17, 13s. 4d. might be allowed [him] 
for transporting from Cambridge to Oxford and keeping some 



3 5 8 The Records of Oxford. 

French neutrals, * * * from which [he] hath never re- 
ceived any profit or service, they refusing to work — that upon 
said petition said court was ])lea6ed to allow [him] no more 
than 42s. S^d. — that the hoiiorable board have sent your peti- 
tioner's servants to the town of Dedham, and so he is deprived 
of any service from them until this time, notwithstanding the 
great expense he was put to in maintaining them. * * *" 

He prays he may be allowed the remainder of his account, 
" or that he may have an order from the honorable court to 
take those that were bound to him from Dedham and compel 
them to work." 

The chief item in his bill was for boarding the family at 
Capt. Thomas Sterne's, Worcester. Upon this petition, on 
March 20, 1758, in the House of Representatives, £5, 9s. and 

4 pence were ordered paid, but the council non-concurred. 

On August 26, 1757, a warrant was drawn to pay from the 
treasury of the colony £15, fis. 6d. to the selectmen of Oxford 
for the support of " French from Nova Scotia sent there." 

A family named LeBlanc came to Oxford. Supplies from 
March 10, 1758, to May 24, 1759, were furnished them by 
Dr. Alexander Campbell, for which he sent a bill of £21 to the 
Leo-islatnre. From May, 1759, to March, 1760, Edward Davis, 
Esq., provided for them at an expense of £18. This family, 
father, mother and nine children, later removed to Brimlield. 

A petition had been sent to his excellency, the governor- 
general of the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, 
and to the honorable gentlemen of the council, that in these 
French families parents and children should not be separated. 
" That houses be provided for each family, so they may keep 
together." 

After the close of the war, in the first regiment, Worcester 
county militia, March, 1763, were officers from Oxford as fol- 
lows: Edward Davis, major; First Oxford Co., Elisha Davis, 
captain ; John Nichols, lieutenant ; William Earned, ensign ; 



T)ie Inter- Colonial Wars. 359 

Second Oxford Co., Jeremiah Learned, captain ; Jedediah Bar- 
ton, lieutenant; John Towiie, Jr., ensign. In 1771: Edward 
Davis, major; First Oxford Co., Elisha Davis, captain; 
Epliraim Ballard, first lieutenant; William Watson, second 
lieutenant ; Thomas Towne, ensign ; Second Oxford Co., 
Joseph Phillips, captain ; Samuel Eddy, lieutenant ; Isaac 
Putnam, ensign. 

Note. — Province of the Massachusetts Bay. 

Spencer Phips, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief, in 
r , and over His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay, New 

England, etc. 

To Samuel Davis, Gentleman, greeting: 

By virtue of the Power and Authority, in and by His Majesty's Royal 
Commission, to Me granted, to be Lieutenant-Governor over His 
Majesty's Province of tlie Massachusetts Bay aforesaid, and Commander- 
in-Chief during the Absence of the Captain-General, I do (by these 
Presents), reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your Loyalty 
Courage and good Conduct, constitute and appoint You, the said Sam- 
uel Davis, to be Second Lieutenaat of the Foot Company in the Town of 
Oxford, under the command of Lieut. -Col. Ebenezer Learned, in the 
the first Regiment of Militia in the County of Worcester, whereof John 
Chandler, Esq., Colonell. 

You are, therefore, carefully aud diligently to discharge the Duty of 

a Second Lieutenant in leading, ordering and exercising said Company 

in Arms, both iuferiour Officers and Soldiers, and to keep them in good 

Order and Discipline; liereby commanding them to obey you as their 

Second Lieutenant, and yourself to observe and follow such Orders and 

Instructions as you shall from Time to Time receive from Me, or the 

Commander-in-Chief for the Time being, or other your Superiour Officers 

for His Majesty's Service, according to Military Rules and Discipline, 

pursuant to the Trust reposed in You. 

Given under my Hand and Seal at Arms, at Boston, the Eighth 

Day of November, In the Twenty-Sixth Year of the Reign of His 

Majesty, King George the Second, Anrioq Domini, 1753. 

S. Phips. 
By Order of the Honourable the Lieutenant-Governor. 

I. WiLLAKD, Secretary. 



3^0 The Records of Oxford. 

Note. — Brigadier-General Learned of Oxford, and Col. Jonathan Hol- 
man of Sutton, had both been veterans in the British service in 
Canada during the "French War-" It is said that General Learned 
and Colonel Holman suffered much while in this service, particularly in 
the vicinity of Lake George and Ticonderoga. 

Holman and Learned each retired from service in the French and 
Indian War with a commission of Major. 

In the French and Indian War Capt. Ebenezer Learned was appointed 
by the Crown to weigh out the gold and silver bullion to make pay- 
ments to the soldiers. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Revolutionary War. 

The Stamp Act was passed by the Parliament of England in 
1765. 

The Assembly and people of Massachusetts, being regarded 
by the aiitiiorities of Eiighmd as most active in their disloyalty 
to their sovereign, two regiments were sent to Boston. 

The troops arrived in the autumn of 1768, and landing, 
marched into town with offensive parade. 

The following ancient account exhibits the sentiments of the 
people of Boston on their arrival: 

"On Friday, Septr. 30th, 1768, the Ships of War. Armed Schooner, 
Transports, etc., came up the Harbour and Anchored round the Town; 
their cannon loaded, a spring on their Cables as for a regular Siege." 

"At noon on Saturday, October the 1st the fourteenth and twenty- 
ninth Regiments a detachment from the 59th Regt. and train of Ar- 
tillery with two pieces of Cannons landed on the Long Wharf ; there 
Formed and Marched with Insolent Parade, drums beating, lifes play- 
ing, and Colours flying up King Street. Each soldier having received 
l(j rounds of Powder and Bail." 

The fleet consisted of ships Beaver, Senegal, Martin, OlascoiD, Mermaid, 
Romney, Laumeston and Bonetta. 



Revolutionary War. 361 

The wharf at the right or north of Long wharf is Hancock's wharf; 
the north battery is shown at the extreme right. 

The dedication in the lower right-hand corner is as follows : 
To the Earl of Hillsborough, 

His Majest'. Ser. y of State for America. 
This view of the only well Plan'd Expedition formed for supporting 
ye dignity of Britain and chastising ye insolence of America. 

Humly Inscrib'd. 

A view was taken of part of the town of Boston in New England and 
British ships of war landing their troops 1768. 

Engraved, printed and sold by Paul Revere, Boston.* 

In September, 1774, the report of various disturbances in 
Boston aroused the whole country. Powder stored in Cam- 
bridge by the patriots was removed to Boston by a detachment 
of troops under orders from Gov. Gage. The people imme- 
diately rushed out in great excitement loudly denouncing the 
act and demanding the restitution of the powder. 

" In the clamor and confusion a report was somehow started 
that the British fleet and garrison had commenced hostilities, 
and swift-footed messengers caught this rumor, and hurried 
with it in various directions. It was afterward asserted that 
this story was sent out by patriot leaders for the express pur- 
pose of showing the British government the temper and spirit 
of the colonies. If this were so they gained their end. The 
rumor flew on three great traveled routes, gaining in flight." 

" Southward, it came to Esquire Woleott of Oxford, who 
forthwith posted his son John Woleott, off to Boston, ' to 
learn the certainty,' but receiving further confirmations of the 
great news at Grafton, the young man turned back, and took 
it straightway to Curtis' tavern in Dudley. One Clark, a trader, 
caught it up and hurried it on to his father in Woodstock. 

* One of these engravings (now very rare) is in the possession of George 
W. Sigourney, Esq., a descendant of Capt. Andrew Sigourney of Boston, 
afterward of Oxford. 
46 



362 TJic Records of Oxford. 

Capt. Clark in hot haste bore it on to Captain Keyes of Pom- 
fret, and he at 11 a. m., Saturday, Sept. 3, brought it to Col. 
Israel Putnam. Hitherto the news had gone from mouth 
to mouth like the highland war cry : 

' Boston our Boston is in need ! 
Speed forth the signal : patriots, speed.' 

" But now Putnam gave it a more tangible fortn by scrawl- 
ing off tlie following to Capt. Aaron Cleveland of Canterbury : 

" 'Captain Cleveland. — Mr. Keyes has this a. m. brought 
us the news that the Men of War and troops began to tire on the 
people of Boston last night at sunset, when a post was sent im- 
mediately off to inform the country. He informs that the artil- 
lery played all night, that the people are universally (rallied 
from Boston) as far as here in arms, and desires all the as- 
sistance possible. It (alarm) was occasioned by the country 
people's being robbed of their powder from (Boston) as far as 
P>amingham, and when found out the people went to take the 
S'lldiers and six of our people were killed on the spot, and 
several were wounded. Beg you will rally all the forces you 
can and be on the march immediately for the relief of Boston 
and the people that way. — I. P.' 

" ' Fast as hoof could fly ' this was carried to Cleveland, 
countersigned by him, and sent by express ' along to JSTorwich 
and elsewhere.' Reaching Norwich at 4 p. m., it was for- 
warded by Capt. John Durkee, at New London. It was in- 
dorsed bv Richard Law, Nathaniel Shaw, and Samuel Parsons, 
and hurried on to New Haven and New York. 

"Gaining credence and fresh signatures at every stopping 
place it speeded southward ; and at nine o'clock Tuesday morn- 
ing, just seventy hours from Pomfret, it was laid before the Conti- 
nental Congress, just assembling in Philadelphia. Thus from 
Boston to Pennsylvania the whcjle country had been aroused. 
From the great centres the news had spread in every quarter. 



Revolutionary War. 363 

The hour of conflict had come. Boston was attacked and all 
were summoned to her relief. Never was rallying cry more 
effective. Coming from Putnam and endorsed by prominent and 
responsible men, it was everywhere received and obeyed. 

" ' To arms,' was the quick response, and thousands hurried 
to the rescue. A thousand men took up arms in the three 
lower counties of Delaware, twenty-thousand were reported en 
route in Connecticut. The summons coming on Sunday it had 
the effect of putting that Puritan Colony ' into alarm and 
motion on the Lord's day.' Col. Putnam's missive was read 
publicly in most of the congregations, and furnished the text 
for many a stirring exhortation. 

"In many of the more distant towns the messenger brougiit 
the tidings to the meeting-house in tiie midst of divine service, 
and worthy members of the church militant left the sanctuary 
for the battle-field. Even ministers were said, to have left their 
pulpits for the gun and drum, and set off for Boston.' In 
Norwich, Putnam's letter was ' printed off, and circulated 
through the town in hand bills,' and on Sunday morning over 
four hundred men, well armed and mostly mounted upon good 
horses, started for Boston under command of Major John 
Durkee. 

"Two hundred ardent volunteers, well armed and mounted, 
left Windham at sunrise, and bodies of men were despatched 
from all the other towns of Windham County. Putnam hav- 
ing sent the despatch, set out himself with four comrades for 
the scene of action, and had proceeded as far northward as 
Douglas when he heard ' that the alarm was false and Massa- 
chusetts forces returning.' He immediately turned back and 
after a sixty-mile ride reached home at sunrise, and ' sent the 
contradiction along to stop the forces marching or rallying ' 

" The Norwich troops were met seven miles from their town 
with the intelligence via Providence that the report was with- 
out foundation. The Windham men marched on to Massachu- 



364 The Records of Oxford. 

setts line before receiving counter tidings. Tliis revelation 
that the great mass of the people were ready to take up arms 
whenever occasion called them greatly cheered the patriot 
leaders, and stimulated them to farther resistance."* 

The report of this uprising excited much interest at home 
and abroad " Words cannot express," wrote Putnam and his 
committee in behalf of live hundred men under arms at Pom- 
fret, " the gladness discovered by every one at the appearance 
of a door being opened to avenge the many abases and insults 
which those foes to liberty have offered to our brethren in your 
town and province. But for counter intelligence we should 
have had forty thousand well equipped and ready to march this 
morning. Send a written express to the foreman of this com- 
mittee when yoQ have occasion for our martial assistance." 
The rapid transmission of the news was considered very re- 
markable. On Nov. 12 it reached England and the report on 
its reception there comes back to New York on January 20. 

Oxford in the Revolution. 

The proceedings of Oxford during the Revolution are a rep- 
resentation of the acts in other towns in the State. 

In almost every town tliere was a " Committee of Correspon- 
dence, Inspection and Safety," whose office was to give infor- 
mation of the proceedings of the American Congress, the state 
government and that of other towns. 

September 29, 1774, the people of Oxford resolved, " That 
we ever have been, and will be true and loyal subjects of our 
most gracious Sovereign George III, King of Great Britain, so 
long as we are permitted the free execution of our charter 
rights." 

At the same meeting, Voted, " Dr. Alexander Campbell and 
Capt. Ebenezer Learned to attend the Provincial Congress, at 

* History of Windham County, by Miss Ellen Douglas Learned. 



Revolutionary War. 365 

Concord, on the second Tuesday of October next, or at any 
other town in the province that shall be agreed upon." 

The Continental Congress, which was then in session at 
Philadelphia, resulted in the publication of a " Bill of Rights," 
which was submitted to the people. One article of high practi- 
cal importance was the " Non-Importation Compact." They 
agreed, and associated themselves and their constituents, under 
the sacred ties of virtue, honor and the love of liberty, not to 
import or use any British goods after the 1st day of December, 
1774, particularly the article of tea. Committees were to 
be appointed in every place to see that this agreement was 
observed, and those who violated it were to be denounced 
as enemies to the rights of their country.* 

Of the great men who composed this Congress, Lord Chatham 
remarked in the British Parliament as follows : 

" That, thougli he had studied and admired the free states of 
antiquity — the master spirits of the world — yet, for solidity 
of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, no 
body of men could stand in preference to this Congress ; in the 
presence of their own peculiar difficulties did not forget the 
cause of suffering humanity, but made, with other resolutions, 
one by which they bound themselves, not to be in any way 
concerned in the Slave Trade." 



* In November a meeting was called "to hear some Resolves of the 
Grand Congress,'' and also of the Provincial Congress, and act thereon. 
At this meeting Edward Davis was moderator. Adjonrned to Decem- 
ber 16. " Then met '' and voted " that the Province Tax in the hands 
of the Constables be paid into the town treasury, and the town will pro- 
tect said Constables," and chose Lieut. William Campbell, Daniel Phil- 
lips and Lieut. Samuel Eddy a committee of inspection to see that the 
association of the Continental Congress be duly observed. These arti- 
cles of association were adopted in Continental Congress October 24, 
1774. By them the members, for themselves and their constituents, 
"under the sacred ties of virtue, honor and love of country," agreed 
not to import or use English goods, not to import or purchase slaves, 



366 TJie Records of Oxford. 

January 12, 1775, Voted and chose Col. Ebenezer Learned 
to meet with the Provincial Congress at Cambridge on the first 
day February next, or sooner if needed. 

March 6, 1775, At the town meeting, Voted, That there shall 
be ten stands of fire arms fixed with bayonets provided by the 
Select men at the cost of the town and kept for those men that 
are not able to find themselves arms. 

" Voted that we will in all reasonable ways and means whatso- 

or tea brought from the East Indies, but to encourage the growing of 
wool and the raising of finer breeds of sheep, to favor frugality, economy 
and industry, and promote agriculture, the arts and manufactures 
among the people; to discourage dissipation, horse-racing, gaming, 
shows, etc., to wear no mourning for deceased friends excepting crape 
on the hat, or black ribbons and necklaces for ladies, and to furnish no 
gloves at funerals; to take no advantage of a scarcity of an article to 
raise the price thereof, and to withdraw fellowship and patronage from 
all who did not adhere to the scales of prices which might be adopted. 
They also recommended that in every State, county and town commit- 
tees be appointed to see that these articles be observed. 

On June 29, 1775, Provincial Congress sent to the towns for army 
supplies thirteen thousand coats, which liad been promised, one each to 
the eight-months' soldiers. On August 30 the selectmen sent to public 
stores five shirts, five pairs of breeches and nine pairs of stockings. On 
October 16, thirty-seven coats. "As thro' want of flax we could not 
send our proportion of shirts, etc., but we have a prospect of getting 
our proportion of coats sometime in October, that was set upon Oxford." 
"We have provided thirty-seven coats, containing one hundred and 
thirty-nine yards and one-half — making thirty-seven coats, 4s. per coat, 
£7. 8s. Total value, £47. Is. 9^d. The average price of cloth was about 
5s. per yard. James Brown, the tailor, cut these coats and made twenty. 
Supplies in the line of shoes, stockings, shirts, etc., could not be had 
on contract as at the present day. Requisitions were therefore made 
for them on the towns as for men. Some orders sent to Oxford were : 
January 20, 1777, fourteen blankets; June 17, 1778, shoes, stockings 
and shirts — twenty-eight each; June, 1779, shoes, stockings and shirts 
— twenty-eight each ; May, 1780, shoes, stockings and sliirts — twenty 
each and ten blankets; June, 1781, shoes, stockings and shirts — nineteen 
each. 



Reiwluticviary War. 367 

ever strive to maintain our Charter Rights and privileges in all 
constitutional measures even to the risque of our lives and prop- 
erty." 

May 24, 1775, At a town meeting, chose Edward Davis, 
Esquire to meet with the Provincial Congress at Watertown 
on May 31, for six months as their representative. 

1775, The Freeliolders and other Inhabitants of the Town 
of Oxford duly qualified to vote and act in Town affairs are 
hereby Required in His Majesty's Name to meet at our Meet- 
ing-house in Oxfoi-d on Mondy the 20th day of March current 
at one o'clock afternoon. (The last warrant issued in his 
Majesty's name.) 

October 12, 1776, The style of notice is changed. "The 
freeholders, etc., are notified and warned, in the name of the 
Government of the people of this State, to meet," etc. 

Oct. 12, 1776, is the date of the transition from the town's 
allegiance to the King of Great Britain to the new government 
of the State, appears. 

Before the intelligence had reached the town of the Declara- 
tion of Independence at Philadelphia, July 4, 

July 8, 1776, Voted : " To advise our representative in the 
General Court, That if the honorable Congress should, for the 
safety of the colonies, declare themselves independent of the 
Kingdom of Great Britain, to concur therewith; and the in- 
habitants of this town do solemnly engage with their lives and 
fortunes, to sustain this measure." 

In 1777, " The town voted to add to the bounty offered by 
the American Congress and this State, the sum of £14 to each 
man who shall enlist in the town as a private soldier for three 
years, or during the war, before any draft be made." 

At the same meeting, it was voted " to raise £1,000, to be 
assessed on the polls and real estate in the town, to complete 
the quota of soldiers now sent for to reinforce the Continental 
army." 



3^8 The Records of Oxford. 

In 1778 the town voted "concurrence with the articles of 
confederation proposed by the American Congress " and at the 
same meeting voted to ])ay £800 into the State Treasury. 

August 25, 1779, the town cliose Ebenezer Learned, Esq., and 
Ezra Bowman, delegates to the State convention at Cambridge, 
to act in forming a constitution of government for this State, j 

20 Day of October, 1779, Voted to impower the Treasurer 
of the Town of Oxford to borrow a sum of money not exceed- 
ing Four Hundred Pounds for the supply of the soldiers fami- 
lies, and other necessary charges arising in the Town. 

November 8, 1779, Voted that Samuel Harris, Town Treas- 
urer be empowered to Borrow a further Sum of Money not 
exceeding Three Plundred Pounds on the same condition and 
Manner, and for the ends as is expressed in the vote of the 
20th of October Last. 

March 6, 1780, The Town voted and chose Capt. John 
Nichols, Capt. Ehas Pratt a committee to Supply the Soldiers' 
Families, and that their expenses shall be made good when 
they receive their pay of the Town. 

March 5, 1781, Chose a committee to provide for the poor, 
and the soldiers families, viz. Capt, John Nichols, Ephraim 
Russell, Lt. Levi Davis. 

Supplementing the different installments of aid afforded to 
the families of soldiers in 1780. The town voted to provide 
5960 pounds of beef for the army, August 27, 1781. 

Voted and granted Ninety pounds hard money for to pur- 
chase the beef required of this time by a resolve of the General 
Court, passed June 22, 1781. 

The Committee, Ezra Bowman, Eeuben Ijarab, John 
Dana, Amasa Kingsbury. 

May 13, 1774, General Thomas Gage, the newly-appointed 
English Governor, arrived in Boston and occupied the town 
with four regiments of British soldiers. 

April 19, 1775, Gov. Gage sent a detachment of British 



Revolutionary War. 369 

soldiers to destroy the military stores at Concord ; and on their 
way occurred the battle of Lexington, from which the opening 
of the Revolution may be dated. 

During the early night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere made 
his now famous ride. Before day-break, that memorable day- 
break of Wednesday, the 19th of April. 

Wednesday, April 19, 1775, Somewhere about nine o'clock 
A. M. the Watertown committee started Israel Bissell to convey 
the news through the country. At noon he entered Worcester 
shouting, " To arms, to arms, the war is begun ! " He had 
ridden thirty-six miles ; his white horse bloody with spurring, 
and exhausted, fell as he readied the church door (the old 
south church on the common). Immediately another was pro- 
cured, the Watertown despatch was indorsed and Israel Bissell 
was off again, due south for Brooklyn, Connecticut, thirty-eight 
miles more. This for some reason, he only reached at eleven 
the next morning. But General Putnam quickly heard the 
news, left his plow in the furrow, and he too was oif. Norwich, 
twenty miles more, was reached at four o'clock p. m. New 
London (thirteen miles) at seven p. m. 

Here he had also reached the Boston post-road, V)y Provi- 
dence ; but the British had stopped the exit from Boston, and 
he must carry his news to Saybrook (twenty miles more) in 
order to meet the New York rider. At four a. m. of Friday 
he was there. It is one hundred and thirty-seven miles to 
New York. A new rider now mounts (quite possible the 
veteran Hurd whose route it was). That same day at noon he 
was at Branford, seven miles from New Haven. At eight 
o'clock p. M., on Saturday, Jonathan Sturges signed this des- 
patch at Fairfield; Sunday the twenty-third at noon, Isaac Low 
signed it at New York and at four p. m. forwarded it to 
Philadelphia.* 

* This first Revolutionary despatch is now in the Historical rooms at 
Philadelphia. 

47 



370 The Records of Oxford. 

The intelligence of the breaking out of hostilities was imme- 
diately followed by circulars from the Massachusetts committee 
of safety, calling ont the militia. 

April 20. One addressed to the towns urged them " to 
hasten and encourage by all means the enlistment of men to 
the army," to send them forward without delay. "Our all," 
it reads, " is at stake. Death and devastation are the certain 
consequences of delay. Every moment is infinitely precious. 
An hour lost may deluge your country and entail perpetual 
slavery upon the few of your posterity that may survive the 
carnage." 

Before thirty days had passed after the battle of Lexington, 
Oxford and the towns in the immediate vicinity had raised a 
full regiment of ten companies, all volunteers, and they were on 
the march to the battle-field. 

In 1775, soon following the battle of Lexington, Colonel 
Ebenezer Learned, with his regiment, reported for service at 
Cambridge, and with Colonels Prescottand Warren, was ordered 
to join General Thomas at Roxbury, where they arrived more 
than two months before Washington came to take command of 
the army. 

May, 1775. The following enrollment and organization of the 
regiment of Col. Ebenezer Learned is from Force's Archives, 
Vol. 11, 4th series, p. 823 : 

"Col. Learned's regiment: J. Danforth Keys, Lieut. Col- 
onel ; Jonathan Hollman, Major ; Barrister, Adjutant 

Captains: Peter Harwood, Adam Martin, John Granger, Joel 
Greene, Samuel Billings, William Campbell, Arthur Daggett, 
Nathaniel Nealey, Samuel Curtis, Isaac Bolster. Lieutenants 
Asa Danforth, Abel Mason, Matthew Gray, David Prouty, 
Barnabas Lean, Reuben Davis, Jonathan Carrier, Salem Town, 
Samuel Learned, John Haselton. Ensigns: Benjamin Pollard, 
Benjamin Felton, Stephen Gorham, Thomas Fisk, John How- 
ard, William Powdry." 



Revolutionary War. 371 

"In Provincial Congress, Watertown, May 23d, 1775. 

" Resolved that commissions be given to the officers of Col. 
Learned's regiment agreeable to tlie above list." 

Soon after the arrival of Col. Learned's regiment at Roxburj 
occurred the famous battle of Bunker Hill, " all of which it saw 
a part of which it was," although it was not actually engaged in 
the light on the hill. It formed a part of the right wing of 
the army, under the command of Gen. John Thomas, which 
was stretched round from Dorchester, through Roxbury, to Bos- 
ton line, to prevent the enemy from breaking tlirough and 
making a flank movement. 

This regiment enlisted for eight months ; from May 1, 1775, 
till January 1, 1776. The regiment was in service in and 
around Boston. "When their time expired the men were regu- 
larly discharged. 

The battle of Bunker Hill took place June 17, 1775. 

In the victory to the Americans the British were dispirited, 
who had boasted that a few regiments could conquer the whole 
country.* 

Gen. Washington left Philadelphia June 21, 1775, to assume 
command of the American army at Cambridge. At New York 
he received news of the battle of Bunker Hill. At Brookfield, 
July 1, he was met by a company of horsemen from Worcester, 
commanded by Capt. James Chad wick, who escorted him into 
town. 

Dec. 10, 1775, " On Sunday last the lady of his excellency 
General Washington, and the lady of General Gates, with their 
attendants, passed through this town (Worcester) on their way 
to Cambridge." 

General Washington, as commander-in-chief arrived in Bos- 
ton July 2, 1775 , after the battle of Bunker Hill, and 

* There is at the Town Hall in Oxford a canaou ball of tweuty-four 
pounds weight, brought by Col. Ebenezer Learned as a relic from the 
battle-field of Bunker Hill. 



3/2 The Records of Oxford. 

readied Cainl)ridge, the headquarters of the American army. 
He found there a large body of Provincials not accustomed 
to disciplined warfare, destitute of arms and ammunition. 
He at once commenced organizing the soldiers and subjecting 
them to military service. And the Provincial allies became the 
Continental Army. 

Washington erected a line of batteries from Winter Hill 
near Mystic river, through Cambridge, Brookline and Roxbury 
as far as Dorchester Heights. He held the British forces be- 
sieged in Boston until March, when they set sail for Halifax 
and the war was transferred to other States. 

Thomas and Jonathan Amory with Peter Johonnot who 
have at the earnest entreaties of the inhabitants throuffh the 
Lieutenant-Governor, solicited a flag of truce for this purpose. 

John Scolley, 
Timothy Newall, 
Thomas Marshall, 
Samuel Austin. 

This paper was received at the lines at Roxbury l)y Col. 
Learned who carried it to headquarters ; and in return, the next 
day, wrote to the messengers as follows : 

Roxbury, March 9, 1776. 
Gentlemen : — Agreeably to a promise made to you at the 
lines yesterday, I waited upon his excellency General Wash- 
ington, and presented to him the paper handed to me by you 
from the selectmen of Boston. Tlie answer I received from 
him was to this effect : " That, as it was an unauthenticated 
paper, without an address, and not obligatory upon General 
Howe, he would take no notice of it." I am with esteem and 
respect, gentlemen, 

Your most obedient servant, 

Ebenezer Learned. 
To Messers Amory and Johonnot. 



Revolutionary War. 373 

The British cominaiider was now reduced to the alteri)ative 
of either dislodging Washington's forces or the evacuation of 

the place. 

The British General, Lord Howe, then resolved to evacu- 
ate the towns without delay. He commenced very early in the 
morning of Sunday, March 17th, the embarkation of his army. 
About nine o'clock the garrison left Bunker Hill. Two men 
were sent forward to reconnoitre, found the fortress was left 
in charge of wooden sentinels, and immediately gave the joy- 
ous signal that it was evacuated. 

A detachment soon took possession of it. General Putnam 
ordered another detachment to march forward and take posses- 
sion of Boston, while the remainder of the troops returned to 
Cambridge. 

Meanwhile General Ward arrived with about five hundred 
troops from Koxbury, under the immediate command of Col- 
onel Ebenezer Learned of Oxford.* 

Col. Learned, accompanied by a crowd of loyalist refugees, 
marched in through the deserted gates, having unbarred them 
with his own hands. 

After the evacuation Learned, with his command, remained 
about two weeks on the highlands south of the town, where he 
could observe the movements of the British fleet. On March 
20 Gen. Greene issued the following order : " Col. Learned 
is directed to man six whale boats every night while the enemy 
remain in the harbor, whose duty it is to row about and make 
discoveries of any movement of the enemy, that the garrison 
may be apprised thereof." On April 2 Learned and his regi- 
ment were relieved from duty at Dorchester Point, and were 
soon after ordered with the main body of the army to the 
defence of New York. 

As soon as the British fleet had put to sea, the American 
army proceeded by divisions to New York, where it arrived 
April 14. The disastrous affair of Long Island, August 27. 

* Army Record. 



374 The Records of Oxford. 

Washington withdrew his forces from the island April 28, 
at night. Soon afterward he removed his army to Harlem 
Heights in the northern part of New York island. Washing- 
ton was obliged to evacuate New York on Sept. 15, then to 
Kingsbridge the army moved toward White Plains, and here 
took place the battle of White Plains, Washington then 
changed his position. Fort Washington on York island was 
taken and its garrison made prisoners. Washington then re- 
treated to New Jersey. Then followed the battles of Prince- 
ton and Trenton. In July, 1777, Gen. Howe embarked his 
forces and proceeded against Philadelphia. 

Sept. 10, the battle of Brandywine was fought and the 
Americans defeated. 

Sept. 26, 1777, Lord Howe entered Philadelphia with his 
army. While the British were in the possession of Philadelphia 
Washington endeavored to cut off their supplies for the army. 

Washington then distributed his soldiers into winter quarters 
at Valley Forge. In June, 1778, the British evacuated Phila- 
delphia, the position being considered dangerous by the posi- 
tion France was about to take in the war. 

At the siege of Yorktown, Sept. 28, to October 9, 1781, 
Lord Cornwallis surrendered. 

After the battle of Bunker Hill Col. Learned received in- 
juries at Roxbury which disabled him from service for a time. 

In April, 1777, he was commissioned a Brigadier-General in 
the northern army.* 

The Battle OF Bemis Heights, Sept. 19, 1777. 

General Gates made preparations for resistance. Brave offi- 
cers and determined soldiers in high spirits were gathered 
around him, and the latter were hourly increasing in numbers. 
The counsels of General Schuyler and the known bravery of 
General Arnold were at his command and he felt confident of 
victory, aided by such men as Poor, Learned, Stark, Whipple, 

* From Boston Records. 



Revohitionary War. 375 

Paterson, Warner, Fellows, Baily, Glover, Wolcott, Bricketts 
and Tenbroeck with their full brigades. 

General Arnold resolved to do what he could with those 
under his command, which consisted of General Learned's 
brigade and New York troops. Arnold led the van of his men 
and fell upon the foe. Bj voice and action he encouraged his 
troops, but the overwhelming numl^ers of the enemy for a time 
repulsed them. It was now three o'clock in the afternoon ; for an 
hour the Americans had disputed the ground inch by inch, but 
the crushing force of superior numbers pressed them back to 
their lines. Both armies retained their position until October 7. 
The British general determined to make one more trial of 
strength with his adversary. 

Neilson in describing this battle of September 19, says: 
" Toward the close of the day Gen. Learned's brigade and 
another regiment were principally engaged on a rise of ground, 
west of the cottage (Freeman's), with the British grenadiers 
and a regiment of British infantry, and bravely contested the 
ground till night." 

On September 26 Gen. Gates issued the following: 
"The public business having so entirely engaged the Gen- 
eral's attention that he has not been properly at leisure to 
return his grateful thanks to Gen. Poor's and Gen. Learned's 
brigades, to the regiment of Riflemen, Corps of Light Infan- 
try, and Col. Marshall's regiment for their valiant behavior in 
the action of the 19th inst., which will forever establish and 
confirm the reputation of the Arms of the United States." 

The Battle of Saratoga.* 
The following account of this brilliant affair of October 7, 



* Sir Edward Creasy, ^M. A.,}in a book published in London, in 1873 and 
entitled the Fourteen Decisive Battles of the World, from Marathon to 
Waterloo, singled out the battle of Saratoga as the decisive battle of the 
Revolution. 



37^ The Records of Oxford. 

Vlll^ is given in Thatcher's Military Journal, publislied in 
New York at tlic time. 

*'I am fortunateenongli to obtain from our officers a particu- 
lar account of the glorious event of the 7th inst. 

" The advanced parties of the two armies came into con- 
tact at two o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, and immediately 
displayed tlieir hostile attitude. The Americans soon ap- 
proached the royal army, and each party in defiance awaited 
the deadly blow. Tiie gallant Colonel Morgan at the head of 
his famous rifle corps, and Major Dearborn, leading a detach- 
ment of infantry, commenced the action with such intrepidity, 
that the works were carried and their brave commander Colonel 
Breyman was slain. 

" The Germans were pursued to their encampment, which, 
with all the^equipage of the brigade, fell into our hands. Night- 
fall put a stop to onr brilliant career though the victory was 
most decisive, and it is with pride and exultation that we re- 
count the triumph of American bravery. 

"This was indeed a signal victory." 

The troops of Poor and Learned marched steadily up the 
gentle slope of the eminence on which the British grenadiers * 
and ]iart of the artillery under Ackland and Williams were 
stationed, and true to their orders not to fire until after the first 
discharge of the enemy, pressed on in awful silence towards the 
batallions and batteries. 

Arnold assaulted the works occupied by the light infantry 
under Earl Balcarras, and at the point of the bayonet drove the 
enemy from a strong abatis, through which he attempted to force 
his way into the camp. He was obliged to abandon the effort, 
and dashing forward to the right flank of the enemy, exposed 
to the cross tire of the contending armies, he met Learned's 
brigade advancing to make an assault upon the British works 
at an opening in the abatis between Balcarras' light infantry 

* The grenadiers were the flower of the British army. 



Revolutionary War. 377 

and the German right flank defense under CoL Breyman. The 
Germans, who fled, finding the assault general, tiirew down their 
arms and retreated to the interior of the camp, leaving their 
commander, Col. Breyman, mortally wounded. Burgovne en- 
deavored to rally the panic-stricken Germans. 

Personal differences with Gates had led to Arnold's removal 
from command since the battle of the 19th., and he had remained 
in camp, and though without any regular command, Arnold was 
the animating spirit in the last conflict. Gates sent an aid to 
recall him. " But Arnold, keeping out of the way of the mes- 
senger, placed himself at the head of one brigade, and then 
another, and led them on with a reckless daring, to attack the 
enemy, with good judgment and undaunted courage. The 
British line was already breaking as he entered the field. 
Under his impetuous assaults with Patterson and Glover's brig- 
ades, and then with Learned's, the enemy gave way everywhere 
in confusion."* 

The Hessians received the first assault of Arnold's brigades 
upon the British centre with a brave resistance, but when upon 

* "Arnold rode to the front of Learned's brigade, which had been so 
recently under his command, and daslied into the fight. He was cheered 
as he rode past, and like a whirlwind the regiments went with him upon 
the broken British lines. Fraser fell mortally wounded in this assault, 
and swiftly behind the half-crazy volunteers came Ten Broeck with a 
force nearly double that of the whole British line. That line was now 
in full retreat. Phillips and Reidesel, as well as Burgoyne, in person 
exhibited marvellous courage in an hour so perilous, but nothing 
could stop Arnold ; wheresoever he found troops he assumed command, 
and by the magnetism of his will and passion he became supreme in 
daring endeavor. With a part of the brigades of Patterson and Glover 
he assaulted the intrenchments of Earl Balcarras, but was repulsed. To 
the right of Balcarras the Canadians and Royalists were posted under 
cover of two stockade redoubts. There again Arnold met Learned's 
brigade, took the lead, and with a single charge cleared these works, 
leaving the left of Breyman's position entirely exposed."— JVo«es of Gen. 
Corrington. 

48 



3/8 The Records of Oxford. 

a second charge he dashed furiously among them at the head 
of his men, they broke and fled in dismay. Gen. Fraser was 
killed. Burgoyne now took command in person, but could not 
keep up the sinking courage of the men. The whole line gave 
way and fled precipitately within the intrenchinents of the 
camp. 

At length " the Americans press forward with renewed 
strength and ardor, and compel the whole British line, com- 
manded by Burgoyne himself, to yield to their deadly tire, and 
they retreat in disorder. The German troops remain firmly 
posted at their lines; these were now boldly assaulted by Briga- 
dier-General Learned and Lieutenant-Colonel Brooks at the head 
of their respective commands. 

"Here General Learned, mounted on his powerful horse, 
which at first refused to proceed, was forced by soldiers on with 
his rider through tlie opening of the abatis filled with the dead 
and wounded."* 

Gen. Wilkinson, who was Gates' adjutant, and on the field, 
says : 

" About sunset I perceived Gen. Learned advancing toward 
the enemy with his brigade in open column * * * when 
I rode up to him. On saluting this brave old soldier he in- 
quired, ' where can I put in with tnost advantage ? ' I had 
particularly examined the ground between tlie left of the Ger- 
mans and the light infantry, occupied by provincialists, from 
whence I had observed a slack fire. I therefore recommended 
to Gen. Learned to incline to his right, and attack at that 
point ; he did so with greiit gallantry ; the provincialists aban- 
doned tlieir position and fled ; the German flank was by this 
means uncovered ; tliey were assaulted vigorously, overturned 
in five minutes and retreated in disorder, leaving their com- 
mander, * * * Breyman, dead on the field. The niglit 

*Remini8cence8 of David Stone, who was in service under Gen. Learned. 



Revolutionary War. 179 

was now closing in. The victory of tiie Americans was 

decisive." 

Before dawn Burgoyne removed the whole of his army camp 
and artillery, meditating a retreat to Fort Edward. On the 
morning of the 8th of October the Americans took possession 
of the evacuated British camp. Burgoyne on the 9th of Octo- 
ber quietly retreated to Saratoga. Gates followed the enemy. 
Moro-an, Poor and Learned threatened their rear on the west. 
Burgoyne sent a flag of truce to the American commander. 

Extracts from a Letter of Rev. Joseph Bowman of Oxford, 
DATE October 23, 1777, to Brigadier-General Learned, 
" In ye Northern Army." 

" The most particular accounts, yt we have had of affairs in 
your quarter yt we could depend upon have been in your let- 
ters to Mrs. Learned, one of which was published in ye Wor 
cester Paper ; viz yt which gave an account of an action of y 
19th of Sept. I do not know how it is, but seems yt our print- 
ers have no correspondence in y Army & consequently few 
particulars and those collected from one, and another, are vague 
and uncertain & sometimes unintelligible and some accounts 
contradicted by others so yt we knew not what to believe. 

" Most of ye intelligence that I rely upon has come from 
you by y way of Mrs. Learned this summer ; and I hope you 
will continue to give as circumstantial an account of things as 
you can as I shall still hope to gain some knowledge by yt 
means thro' her kindness, even tho' you should not write to me 
in particular which would be peculiarly acceptable if you could 
find leisure time enough for such a thing, amidst a multitude 
of care and Business which I know must lie upon your hands 
your family and friends here are all well. Sylvanus has got 
'Bravely again and thinks of Returning to you soon please to 
give my love to all our oxford Friends with you when you 
shall see them, and you may tell them that their Friends here 



38o The Records of Oxford. 

Hie all well it has i)eeii reuiarkablj iiealthy with us this suinmer 
past and fall hitherto ye season has been good and very fruitful 
we have plentiful crops (thro Divine goodness) tho' every 
thing is excessive dear our privateers bring in many prizes tho' 
not so many as the}^ did last year from ye Southward we have 
had various reports since ye battle at Brandy wine sometime yt 
General How has got Philadelphia at others that he has not. 
"yt action of y 19th of Sept. you gave us ye most particular 
account of than any yt we have had but yt of y 7tli Instant, 
your account is general & short, I was about to have added 
something further, but having just now received authentic in- 
telligence of a most im])ortant Event viz ye surrender of ye 
whole British Army commanded by General Burgoyne to ye 
American forces I therefore stop short to congratulate you on 
this most singular, important and happy Event may all onr 
hearts be tilled with a grateful sense of ye Divine goodness in 
this nost interesting affair and may we have grace to ascribe 
unto ye Lord of Hosts ye God of Armies all ye praise and 
glory yt is Due to His Great Name and may we never forget 
His Benefits." 

Note. — Gen. Learned's Letter. 

"Stillwater, Sept. 25, 1777. 

"Oil Thursday the 18th instant marched about 4 miles at 5 o'clock 
A. M. in order to attack the enemy on the right flank on their march; 
but they not marching according to expectation prevented our doing 
any thing of considerable consequence. 

" We attacked a small party about 60 or 70 rods from the enemy's 
front, killed some, said to be five or six, took and sent in tliat day, as I 
was informed after my return, 36 prisoners. We all returned about 
sunset, without the loss of one man killed or wounded. 

"The next day (September 19th), we were early alarmed, being in- 
formed the enemy were on their march towards our Camp. Agreeable 
to a result of Council of War, the Riflemen and Infantry from the left 
of our army went and attacked the Enemy's right Wing, or rather their 
front guard about 5 minutes before one o'clock. The enemy gave way, 



Revolutionary War. 381 

we took some prisoners. The enemy reinforced, which caused us to do 
the same; which was alternately done by the enemy and on our part of 
the Army till the battle became almost General between the Enemy and 
our Division. 

"I was ordered to send out one Regiment at first, and the rest in suc- 
cession, except the last. — I then received orders to march to the attack. 
We marched on briskly and came up to the Enemy's right wing, which 
was endeavoring to surround our left. A most severe fire lasted till the 
cover of the night prevented further action. We went back to our 
camp, and the enemy have encamped near the ground where the battle 
was fought. We are near neighbors. Our lines and those of the enemy 
are but about a mile and a quarter from each other. Both armies are 
fortifying, but time only can determine the further event. The effect 
of this battle is that we have lost two Lieut. -Colonels killed, with a 
number of other officers of different ranks. In the whole our killed, 
wounded and missing are about 318. By the best accounts the enemy's 
loss, killed and wounded, amounts to a thousand. These are facts. 
Capt. Wiley is wounded. Our army are in high spirits. We took 
eighty on the day of battle. 

P. S. — On the day of battle, and since, tAvo of our Captains were 
taken Prisoners, also one Lieut, and 27 privates. This is an exact ac- 
count of the Prisoners sent by Burgoyue to Gen, Gates, each man's name 
specified in the list." 

Note.— In the Massachusetts Sjjy of October 16, 1777, Isaac Pratt gave 
notice that he was about to start for the army, and would carry letters 
and bring returns at one shilling postage. 

General Learned was esteemed a brave and humane soldier. 
He survived the Kevolution about twenty years, and was much 
honored after his retirement from the army. 

It is said that in personal appearance General Learned was 
tall and strongly built, being six feet and two inches in height, 
"his frame being capable of enduring great fatigue. His 
countenance expressed gentleness and calmness, and yet there 
were depicted dignity and command. He was endowed by na- 
ture with a sound judgment and discerning mind. 

" His step and bearing were pecuhar to himself, his tread was 



382 The Records of Oxford. 

heavy aud measured. In conversation all were impressed with 
awe in his presence. General Learned was a judge of a horse 
and rode a very good one in his army campaigns. In the 
Revolutionary War he rode a high- mettled young black horse 
of wonderful endurance. His fine appearance on horseback, with 
his calm courage, and with the peculiar tread of the horse 
was ever recognized by the soldiers in the distance." 

In the War of the Revolution, Captain Jeremiah Kings- 
bury's company from Oxford was included in Colonel Jona- 
than Holman's regiment, Massachusetts Fifth, or the Sutton 
regiment. 

Capt. Jeremiah Kingsbury's company, Col. Jonathan Hol- 
man's regiment, Providence, January 20, 1777, roll : Jeremiah 
Kingsbury, captain ; Silas Town, lieutenant ; Jonas Pratt, 
Levi Davis, Jonas Eddy, Allen Hancock, sei-geants ; William 
Hudson, John Pratt, Amos Shumway, Ebenezer Shumway, 
corporals ; Zaccheus Ballard, John Rawson, Joseph Kingsbury, 
John Allen, John Larned, Josiah Shumway, Curtis Dixon, 
Sampson Marvin, John White, Amos Wakefield, Thomas 
Wolcott, Jesse Gleason, Nathan Pratt, Reuben Eddy, Jona- 
than Coolidge, Elisha Town, Sylvanus Learned, Jesse Pratt, 
Jesse Merriam, Sanmel Stone, Joseph Sparhawk, Aaron Par- 
ker, Jonathan "Merriam, Jonas Davis, Benjamin Hovey, Wil- 
liam Lamb. Time in camp, forty-three days. 

A detachment of this company was again in service when 
the " Militia" marched to reinforce Gen. Gates' army. 

Sept. 27, 1777, the following men from Oxford were members 
of Capt. Jeremiah Kingsbury's company and Colonel Jonathan 
Holman's regiment : 

Jeremiah Kingsbury Capt., John Ballard, Lieut., Ebenezer 
Coburn, Sergt., Haynes Learned, Sergt,, Jonas Eddy, Corp., 
Allen Hancock, Corp., John Learned, Aaron Parker, Joshua 
Pratt, Joseph Rock wood, Joshua Merriam, William Nichols, 
Nathan Pratt, John Rawson, Ambrose Stone, Jonas Davis, 



Revolutionary War. S^S 

David Stone, Ambrose Fitts, Amos Shnmway, Anthony Si- 

gourney. , 

The following served nine months in 1778, m Oaptam 
Jeremiah Kingsbury's company and Colonel Holman's regi- 
ment : 

Jeremiah Kingsbury, Capt., Eleazer Stockwell (or btowell), 
David Chamberlain, Uriah Carpenter. 

The regiment was then honorably discharged from service* 

The following men belonged to the com])any commanded by 

I Capt William Campbell in Col. Ebenezer Learned' s regiment, 

^d marched to Cambridge April, 1775 : William Campbell, 

Capt., Thomas Fish, Lieut., John Campbell, Sergt., Sylvester 

Town, Sergt., James Learned, Corp., Abner Shnmway, Drum., 

Abraham Mansfield, Timothy Sparhalk, Paul Thurston, Samuel 

Baker, John Fessenden, Josiah Eddy, Moses Kneeland (or 

Knowland), Negro Will, Moses Coburn, Jonathan Marsh, 

Thomas Bogle, Frost Kockwood, Daniel Sabins, John Hudson, 

Thomas McKnight, Jason Collar, Arthur Humphrey, David 

Dana Town, James Hambleton Parker, John Conant, William 

Bogle, William Foster, Richard Ferrars. 

* Another regiment was soon organized, called the Massachusetts 
Fifth or Sutton regiment, composed of men coming from Sutton, 
Oxford, Sturbridge, Charlton and Dudley, including adjacent lands, 
and placed under the command of Col. Jonathan Holman of North 

Sutton. 

The following entry is found in the journal of the Massachusetts 
Council, Feb. 7, 1776: "In the House of Representatives: The house 
made choice by ballot of the following gentlemen for field officers 
of the Fifth Regiment of Militia, in the county of Worcester, 



VIZ. 



"Jonathan Holman of Sutton. Colonel, Daniel Plympton, Lieut.- 
Colonel, William Learned of Oxford, First Major, Jacob Davis of 
Charltoia, 2nd Major. 'In council: Road and concurred.' This regi- 
ment was known and styled as the Sutton regiment." 

"The Sutton regiment was included in the army of Gen. Wash- 



384 The Records of Oxford. 

The following belonged to Cajjt. John Town's company and 
marched to Cambridge, April 19, 1775 : John Town, Capt. 
Daniel Hovey, Lieut., Thomas Fish, Lieut., Richard Ferrars 
Sergt., Samuel Manning, Sergt., Arthur Humphrey, Corp. 
Phineas Allen, William Foster, Joshua Turner, Allen Hancock 
John Hudson, Robert Manning, Elias Pratt, Ebenezer Simm 
way, John Ballard, William Bogle, John Campbell, Daniel 
Sabin, Abijah Harris, Timothy Sparhawk, David Dana Town, 
James Pratt, Jr., Haynes Learned, Abraham[.Mansfield (Merri- 
field) Amasa Allen, Sauiuel Baker, iVnthony Sigourney. 

" The two compatiies commanded by William Campbell, 
Captain, and John Town, Captain, include many of the same 
men. It would appear that the two companies were merged 
and the rolls at the St^te House from which the above lists 
have been copied taken at different times." 

The list of men here given has been obtained from the office 
for the payment of pensions to Revolutionary soldiers and from 
the recollection of the aged inhabitants of the town : 

Brig.-Gen. Ebenezer Learned, Capt. Wi lliam Moore. Capt. 

ington at Cambridge. Soon following the evacuation of Boston 
they marched with hira first to Rhode Island, where they were sta- 
tioned some two or three months, from thence proceeding to Long 
Island, where they were in an engagement with the enemy; thence 
up the Hudson river to White Plains, where the American army had a 
severe battle, in which this same Sutton regiment bore a distinguished 
part. 

" After the battle of White Plains the Sutton regiment, under Col. 
Holman, was ordered to Bennington, Vermont, where it remained 
several montlis to guard the country against Gen. Burgoyne's army. 
After the famous battle of Bennington, the regiment of Col. Hol- 
man was next ordered to join the army of Gen. Gates near Sara- 
toga. In the battle that ensued, Col. Holman's regiment was ac- 
tively engaged, and that they acquitted themselves bravely may 
be justly inferred from the fact that after the battle this regiment 
was designated "to take possession of Fort Edward, and to hold 
it, until the dispersion of Burgoyne's army, which they did." 



Revolutionary War. 385 

John Nichols, Lieut. Benjamin Vassal!, Lieut. Ebenezer Hum- 
phrey, Lieut, Jacob Town, Jason Collier, David Lamb, Frost 
Rockwood, Ebenezer Pray, William Simpson, George Alverson, 
Caleb Barton, John Learned, David Town, Allen Hancock, 
-Peter Shumway, Abijah Kingsbury, Joseph Hurd, James 
Merriam, Elisha Blandin, Francis Blandin, Jonas Blandin, 
Sylvanus Learned, Arthur Daggett. Elisha Ward, David Stone, 

Ebenezer Robbins, Sewall, Sylvester Town, Levi Davis, 

Elijah Learned, Richard Coburn, Jacob Learned, Silas Eddy, 
Solomon Cook, Elijah Kingsbury, Ezekiel Collier. 

In May there was a reorganization of troops. William > 
^Campbell, previously in Capt. Craft's cavalry company, Stur- 
bridge, was made captain of the Oxford company, and the fol- 
lowing additional names appear that year on its rolls : Sylvanus 
Town, sergeant, from Craft's company, Abner Shumway, 
drummer, Moses Coburn, Jonathan Marsh (S. Gore), Thomas 
Bogle (took the place of Asa Larned, discharged), Frost Rock- 
wood, Tliomas McKnight, Jason Coller, James H. Parker, 
John Conant, John Fessenden, Josiah Eddy, Moses Know- 
land (S. Gore), Paul Thurston, from Craft's company. Will 
(a negro, servant of Campbell [^], discharged Oct. 5, 1775). 

In Col. Learned's regiment, April, 1775, were also in Craft's 
company of cavalry, Sturbridge, William Campbell, lieutenant 
Levi Davis, Joseph Hurd, Sylvanus Town, Paul Thurston, 
John Walker, William Moore. 

In Capt. Curtis' company, 1775, Robert Manning, corporal 
(transferred from Town's company-'), Stephen Griffith, cor- 
poral, died July 31, 1775 ; Daniel Griffith, Isaac Pratt, Joseph 
Streeter, Moses Town, Elias Town, John Mellen, Samuel 
Learned, Phinehas Allen, Benjamin Edwards. 

In Capt. Healey's company, 1775, William Moore, sergeant, 
transferred from Craft's company, Curtis Dixon, Aaron Wake- 
field, Amos Wakefield. 

In Capt. Green's company, October, 1775, Asa Meriam, 
49 



386 The Records of Oxford. 

Samuel Stone. At Dorchester, 1775, for three months, in 
Dike's regiment, Richardson's company, Ebenezcr Fish, Sam- 
uel Kingsbury. 

In Tyler's regiment, Ferrer's compatiy, December, 1776, 
Daniel Fisk. 

Tiie following enlisted early in 1777 for three years or dur- 
ing the war; Benjamin Wakefield, Josiah Fddy, corporal, 
John Hudson, corporal, Joseph Cody, corporal, Peter Shum- 
way, drummer, Moses Knowland, Richard Moore, AVilliara 
Jordan, David Town, all in Capt. Moore's Co. In Webb's 
company, Sylvanus Learned, sergeant, Noah Harkins, sergeant, 
John Harvey, David Manning. 

Jesse Stone, of Oxfoi'd, was captain of a company which 
marched on the "Bennington Alarm," and was out from July 19 
to August 29, 1777. There were no Oxford men in the ranks. 
The following served three months in 1776 in the company 
commanded by Jonathan Carriel and Colonel Josiah Whitney's 
regiment: Sampson Marvin, Corp., Wm. Jordan, Jedediah 
Blaney, Richard Moore, Moses Town, Elisha Town, Amos Put- 
nam, Moses Knowland. 

Elisha Livermore served as a bombardier three months in 
1776 in Captain William Todd's and Colonel Craft's artillery 
regiment. Nathaniel Wyman, in the same year, served a little 
over a month in Captain Aaron Guild's company and Colonel 
Whitney's regiment. 

The following served in Dorchester in 1778 in Captain 
March Chase's company in Col. Nathan Sparhawk's regiment : 
Jesse Hill, Isaac Anibell, David Smith. 

The following were drafted in 1778: Jonathan Fuller, John 
Jewell, Eleazer Stowell. 

The following served six months in 1779 in Cai)tain Thomas 
Fish's company and Col. Nathan Tyler's regiment in Rhode 
Island : Thomas Fish, Captain, Ebenezer Coburn, Lieut., Abisha 
Shumway, Jacob Weeks, Samuel Atwood. 



Revolutionary War. 387 

The following served six months in the Continental army 
1780: Thomas Walcott, Samuel White, James At wood, Samuel 
Wiley, Elisha Town, Jacob Nichols, Jacob Winslow, Moses 
Baker, Joseph Atwood, Benjamin Turner, Noah Dodge, David 
Town, Samuel Kelly. 

The following served three months in 1781 in Capt. Reuben 
Davis' company and Col. Luke Drury's regiment: William 
Tucker, Corp., John M. Jewell, James Atwood, Ebenezer 
Stone, Phinehas Jones, Jonas Cummings. 

Lemuel Cudworth served in Rhode Island in 1781, in Captain 
Joseph Elliot's company and Colonel William Thomas' regi- 
ment. 

The following enlisted in 1781 to serve three years in the 
Continental army : Sylvanus Learned, Sergt., Noah Hoskins, 
John Harvey, David Manning. 

Besides the above the following Oxford men were in the 
service at various times : Nathan Atwood, Elijah Shumway, 
John Brown, Benjamin Rider, Adams Sulley, William Stowell, 
Cupp Donnings, William Lewis, John Quick. 

Leicester, December y^ 27, 1781. 
This may certify that I have received from the town of Ox- 
ford their full Quota of Men to fill up the Continental 
army. 

Seth Washburn, Sujperijitendent. 

(From the original receipt recorded per Samuel Harris, 
town clerk.) 

From the Oxford Town Records. 

Caft. Fish discharge resignation and Reccommendation. 

May it please your Honor. I should take it as a favor if you could 

give me a discharge from the Service as I think myself much injured in 

my Rank as I can neither have what I think is my rank nor even a 

board of Gentlemen to sit to settle a dispute of Rank between Capt. 



388 The Records of Oxford. 

Webb and I both of one Regiment though I liave requested it of Col. 
Shepard commauding the Regiment and at this time the Brigade to 
which we both belong. 

T. Fish, Cap. 
Col. Shepard, Ueg. 

Providence, June 15, 1779. 

To the Honorable Maj.-Gen. Gates, Head-Quarters, Providence, June 
17, 1779. 

Capt. T. Fisli being desirous to Quit the service is hereby discharg'd 
the Army of the United States of America by order of Maj.-Gen. Gates. 

Isaac Peirce, A. D. Camp. 

The Names of Soldiers in the Continental Army from 
Oxford near the close of the War, 

Kicliard Moore, Jedediah Adams, Zacheus Ballard, Josiah 
Eddy, William Foster, John Florey, John Fessenden, Jesse 
Forsytii, Adonijah Gleasou, John Hudson, William Jordan, 
Moses Knowland, Sylvanus Learned, Samuel Putney, Ebenezer 
Robbins, Peter Shu m way, David Scanning, William Stuart, 
Moses Town, David Town, Jr., Samuel White. 

George Robinson, son-in-law of Gen. Learned, was in his 
brigade, and was killed at the battle of Saratoga. 

Reuben Robinson was also in the service, and died of fever 
in 1776. 

Joseph Kingsbury was drafted in 1777, and Samuel, his son, 
went in his stead, and was in the Saratoga battles. 

Josiah, son of Jeremiah Kingsbury, joined the army at six- 
teen years of age in 1775, and served till the close of the war ; 
was acting quarter-master under Arnold at West Point, and 
ensign when discharged. 

Others were as follows: James Hovey Davis, Samuel Jen- 
nison, lieutenant and quartermaster of Nixon's brigade at Sara- 
toga battles ; David, son of John Barton, sick at Richmond 



Revolutionary War. 389 

after Coruvvallis' surrender ; William, son of Benjainin Kddv, 
Parley, son of William Eddy, six months ; Jacob Fellows, 
Abijali, son of Abijah Gale, Brewer's regiment, died in ser- 
vice ; Jesse Gale, bis brother, killed March 24, 1780 ; Ileze- 
kiah Lamed, marcbed from Upton on Lexington Alarm ; Abi- 
jah Conant, son-in-law of Capt. Jolin Nichols, went as servant 
to Kicbols, died in service; John Twichell, Gideon Sibley, 
from Sutton, on Lexington Alarm ; Abijah and Elihu, sons of 
David Thurston, in the same company, and both killed in the 
same battle August, 1777 ; Jedediah Adams, seven months in 
Wiley's company, killed ; Pliinehas Barton, Capt. John Nich- 
ols, joined the army 1777; Andrew Sigourney, in battle at 
White Plains and others, commissary, with rank of captain; * 
Anthony Sigourney, in same regiment ; Nathan Atwood, Eli- 
jah Shumway, John Bowers, Benjamin Rider, Adams Sully, 
William Stowell, Joseph Phillips. 

On September 29, 1777, Ezra Bowman was appointed by 
the Legislature adjutant of the Fifth regiment and entered the 
service, continuing until April, 1781, at least. 

A reinforcement for Gates, in service from August 1 to 
November 29, 1777, was commanded by Abijah Lamb, under 
Col. Cusliing. Abijah Lamb, captain ; Ebenezer Humphrey, 
Sylvauus Towne, lieutenants; Elijah Larned, Arthur Hum- 
phrey, sergeants ; Dana Towne, Timothy Sparhawk, corporals ; 
Thomas Baker, Jonathan Coolidge, Jason Coller, Ebenezer 
Davis, John Fitts, Joseph Hurd, Isaac Larned, Jonathan 
Merriam, Samuel Stone (commissary), Elias Towne, Isaac 
Larned, Jr., privates. This reinforcement was in the Saratoga 
battles. 

Tradition states that Isaac Larned was bombardier in Capt. 
Todd's artillery company in 1776. 

Capt. Ebenezer Humphrey, Col. Jacob Davis. Company 

* Col. Holman's regiment. 



390 The Records of Oxford. 

raarelied 'Inly 3*>, 1780, to Illiode Island "on the aUiriu." 
Ebenezer Humphrey, captain ; Levi Davis, lieutenant ; Joshua 
Turner, 2d lieutenant ; Joseph Hurd, Ebenezer Humphrey, 
Jr., John Campbell, Amos Shnmway, sergeants; Benjamin 
Shuraway, Jonathan Coburn, David Stone, Samuel Stone, 
corporals; Samuel Cndworth, fifer ; Philip Ammidown, Eze- 
kiel Coller, Thomas Campbell, Solomon Covel, Jonas Davis, 
Simon Gleason, Nathaniel Hamlin, Jonathan Harris, Gideon 
Hovey, Jeremiah Kingsbury, Reuben Lamb, John Nichols, 
Jonas Pratt, Thomas Parker, Nathan Pratt, Ebenezer Red- 
ding, Moses Rowell, Timothy Sparhawk, Josiah Shumway, 
Sylvanus Towne, Archibald Todd, Ambrose Stone, privates. 
Isaac Larned was in this expedition — in another company. 
Time of service about thirteen days. 

Learned to Gen. Washington. 
"Sir, with regret I must humbly represent my case, Being so indis- 
posed in body that I am absolutely rendered unfit to serve the much in- 
jured and distressed publick with the alacrity and usefulness I could 
wish, or the importance of the cause requires; yet my hearty and great- 
est wish is that your Excellency may receive renown, and the United 
Colonies' arms still be distinguished with success and victory, and in 
God's own time every worthy member in the struggle return to and en- 
joy his own habitation in peace. But at present must request to absent 
myself from the Army in the manner your Excellency shall prescribe; 
and if it should be thought most expedient I should be dismissed the 
Continental service, if my past conduct is equal, should pray I may be 
dismissed with honor and supported home. In obtaining this I shall 
have fresh instances of your Excellency's favor; and lay me under new 
obligations ever to remain your very humble servant. 

Ebenezer Learned." 
Addressed 

To the Hon. His Excellency, 

Geo. Washington, Esq. 

Col. Ebenezer Learned on April 2, 1777, received his ap- 
pointment from Congress of brigadier-general. He accepted 



Revolutionary War. 39 ^ 

the offer, and soon joined the northern army under General 
Schuyler. 

His first service under liis new commission was at Fort 
Edward, whence he proceeded to Fort Ticonderoga, where he 
secured and removed valuable stores before that fort was taken 
by Burgoyne in his progress southward. On July 8, 1777, he 
was in command at Fort Edward, at which date he addressed 
the following to Gen. Schuyler : 

" Hon'* and Dear S': 

" I have the agreeable Tidings that our Men at Fort Ann are full of 
Resolution to Defend the Place and I am Supplying every Request from 
there yesterday after Noon the Enemy appeared in sight our People out 
and attacked them and Drove them 3 miles — Saw them carrying oflE 
Dead & Wounded — the Enemy consisted of Hessians, Canadians, & 
Indians we had 1 man Killed 3 Wounded — 

" From Fort George we are informed that the Enemy have made ap- 
pearance 7 miles from there on an island — 3 bateaux and 1 canoe — 
and Since we are drove to the great Necessity to Defend ourselves in 
this bare handed and confused Situation we are struggling to do it in 
the best manner we can. Have but very little Artillery and that un- 
mounted—but very little lead Balls — but very few Tools for fortifying 

— no Tents more but few Kettles «&c «&c — but in the midst of these 
Diffculties we find the great Importance of Defending this last security 
of our Country which God Grant we may never give up though at Pres- 
ent are very Defenceless — I would ask your Particular Orders and ad- 
vice in this Critical Time — I have made all Dispatch to remove the 
most valuable stores from Fort George not with any Design to leave it 

— but find the Necessity to save what few Medicines &c we have left, 
" This moment received from Fort Ann: the Enemy made an attack 

very near the Fort drove our People into the Fort — have heard no more 
" S' your very Humble Serv' 

"Eben" Learned B. : G. 
Hon*^ Gen' Schuyler. 

"This moment heard there were a firing on Lake George we had 
boats sent down &c." 

Fort Stanwix was saved, and Arnold and Learned marched 
to the Hudson. 



392 The Records of Oxford. 

" During their absence the battle of Bennington had been 
fought, and Schuyler had l)een superseded by Gen. Gates. 
Burgoyne was preparing for an advance on Albany, and to 
oppose his progress Arnold and Kosciusco had selected a posi- 
tion to fortify called Beniis' Heights, a rise of ground pecu- 
liarly appropriate for the purpose, lying between the river 
(near whicb was the highest portion) and Saratoga Lake, about 
six miles from it. On this ground, on the 19th of Se})tember, 
occurred the iirst of two hard-fought battles, and from the best 
evidence we have, Arnold was a leading spirit in the day's 
contest, and Learned, who commanded the centre brigade, 
acted a very important part under him, 

Washington to Heath. 

The next mention we find of him is in a letter of Gen. 
Wasliington to Gen. Heath at Boston, bearing date January 9, 
1778, at Valley Forge, which contains the following: 

" I beg you "will carefully forward the enclosed letters to Brigadiers 
Glover and Learned. They contain orders for them to join their re- 
spective brigades, with which they are much wanted." 

Gen. Heath replied, saying these letters had been forwarded 
as requested. Upon the receipt of Washington's order Learned 
proceeded to Boston and laid open his case to Gen. Heath, 
who, on Feb. 7, 1778, wrote as follows to Gen. Washington: 

\Extracts from Gen. Heath's Rejjly.'] 
Brig. -Gen. Learned called upon me a day or two since and requested 
that I would transmit your Excellency the enclosed certificates, and rep- 
resent his present state of health. He has proposed to resign his com- 
mission, but the Hon. Mr. Hancock and myself have persuaded him to 
delay for the present, as in a summer campaign he may render his coun- 
try essential service. He is anxious to know your Excellency's pleasure. 

On February 27, 1778, Gen. Washington replied as follows: 
"Considering Gen. Learned's ill state of health, I think his resigna- 



Revolutionary War. 3^3 

tion had better be accepted of, more especially as from the natiii-e of liis 
complaint it does not appear that he can ever be able to bear the fatigues 
of a campaign. I would therefore advise him to make his resignation, 
with the reasons for so doing, to Congress, who are the proper body to 
receive it." 



Gkn. Lkarned's Lettp:r to Gen. Washington. 

"Boston, March. 13, 1778. 
" Most Hon** Pk. : 

"I have served in this warfare since the beginning as a Col. of a Regt. 
till May 1776 when by indisposition by reason of certain fatigues in the 
army I found myself unequal and resigned the service. 

" Since I recovered a little the Honorable the Continental Congress 
on the second day of April 1777 appointed me to the command of a 
Brig.-Gen'. 

"I immediately took the field, ))roceeded to Fort Edward, and at the 
evacuation of Ticonderoga had great fatigue in securing the remains of 
our stores that way. Directly on that marched my brigade to the relief 
of Fort Stanwix. 

" Immediately on return we had the satisfaction of reducing Bur- 
goyne's army with mucii fatigue and was personally and brigade in the 
severe but victorious actions of Sept. 19 and Oct. 7, and after that army 
was imprisoned w-e took a forced March to Albany to stop the progress 
of the enemy that way. 

"All which brought on my former difficulties and by the advice of 
Doct. Potts I took a furlough of Gen. Gates to retire from the army till 
I was well; the receipt of which with my surgeon's certificate I have 
enclosed. 

" And I find I am quite unequal to act vigorously in my country's 
cause in the field and to eat the Publick's bread and not do the service 
I am not disposed. And I think I am better able to serve in a private 
or civil than in a military character. 

"All of which considered I think it my duty to myself and my fam- 
ily, and country to pray your Honor the Congress to discharge me from 
the sei'vice. 

"And I shall remain as before 
" Your Honor's 

" Very Humble Serv't. 

"Ebenezer Learned, B. : G." 
50 



394 The Records of Oxford. 

In Congress, March 24, 1778, it was resolved that this resig- 
nation be accepted. 

Note. — The Saratoga battle-field, in 1885, still retains relics to recall 
the memories of scenes enacted on its site in the War of the Revolution. 

" The breastworks which suriounded Reidesel's Brunswickers, and at 
the south-eastern extremity of which the Hanau artillery, under Capt. 
Pansch, was placed (enclosing an area of, perhaps, twenty acres), are 
yet easily traced, being still two, and in some places five feet high; and 
in the midst of a dense wood is seen the old camp well used by this 
portion of Burgoyue's army. 

"A large portion of the British camp, after the action of the 19th, was 
on the site of that battle. 

" The house which was the headquarters of Generals Arnold, Learned 
and Poor, before, during and after the two actions, is still standing in 
excellent preservation. 

"The 'Ensign Plouse,' which received a portion of Burgoyne's 
wounded, together with the tall Dutch clock, which ticked off the num- 
bered minutes of the dying, still remain. 

" Among other souvenirs of similar interest, may be mentioned the 
' Lovegat House ' of Coreville, in which Burgoyne and his staff rested 
for one night, both on the advance and on the retreat, and which is 
rendered additionally interesting from its having been the starting point 
of Lady Ackland, when, accompanied by Parson Brudewell, she set out 
in a frail boat, and in the midst of darkness and a cold autumnal storm, 
to rejoin her husband, then lying wounded in the American camp. The 
house remains exactly as it was at the time of Burgoyne's visit, and 
with the same old poplar standing in the door-yard." 



War of iS 12. 395 



CHAPTER XXYI. 

War of 181-2; Mexican War; The Civil War. 

The war of 1812 was caused by aggressions npon the com- 
mei-ee of the United States, and the impressment of seamen 
from American vessels by the English. The American gov- 
ernment decided to declare war against England, June 18, 1812. 
General Henry Dearborn was conmiander-in-chief. 

The war of 1812 continued until the battle of New Orleans, 

January 8, 1815. 

In 1813 the Americans planned to invade Canada with three 
armies. The Army of the West, commanded by General 
William Henry Harrison, was collected near the western end 
of Lake Erie. The Army of the Centre, under General Dear- 
born, was at Sackett's Harbor and on the Niagara f)-ontier. 
The Army of the North assembled on the shores of Lake 
Champlaiu, with General Wade Hampton as commander. 

Abijah, son of Dr. Daniel Fisk, died in 1813, of camp fever, 
at Greenbush ; John, son of George Alverson, killed in battle ; 
J. Prentice, son of Levi Lamb, died in service; Sylvanus, son 
of Col. Sylvanus Towne, in regular army on western frontier, 
from 1800 to 1820, returned and died in Oxford ; David Wait 
served at Fort Warren ; Tisdale Atwoud and Hovey Bounds, 
wounded at Queeustown ; Russell White and George Blandin 
died in service; Jesse Briggs, Rufus Briggs, William Stiles, 
Edward Shumway and Joseph Lamb, musician, 

Capt JbtinlButler during the war of 1812 served in the 
regular army. The Army Register (p. 107) sets him down 
second lieutenant, August 14:, 1813, and on March IT, 1814, 
first heutenant, in the Twenty-fourth infantry. His captam 
was Robert Desha, and his colonel, E. P. Gaines. 

He was stationed at Fort Osage, Jackson Co., Missouri, 
founded 1808, 300 miles up the river and near the present 



39^ The Records of Oxford. 

site of Kansas Citj. It is d(!scril)ed by Brackenbridge in 1811. 
(Lonisiaiia, p. 217.) Penned in bj Indians, his command had 
no rations bur potatoes, while buffaloes were roving; before 
their eyes. Thej were at last obliged to burn the fort and 
escape down the river in boats. Among his other stations 
were St. Charles, Bellefontaine and Fort Clark. In January, 
1814, he was acting adjutant at Newport, Ky., keeping guard 
over -iOO British prisoners. He writes from Detroit, May 14, 
IS 14, that he had marched thither from Newport across the 
State of Ohio ; that 400 regulars were in Detroit, and that 400 
militia had just pushed on to eftablish a post ninety miles 
above. His force reaching St. Joseph, July 20, destroyed it, 
and also British stores at St. Mary's, arriving at Mackinaw, 
July 20. On August 4, 900 Americans landed, were attacked 
by Indians in thick bushes, and fought there forty minutes, 
losing 87 killed or wounded ; they returned to their boats. In 
Lieutenant Butler's company the captain, Desha, was shot 
through the thigh, the third lieutenant, Jackson, and six pri- 
vates were killed ; Butler's own sword belt was cut by a bullet. 
General Cullum's account of the action is as follows (p. 200) : 
" Aug. 4. Our land force attemj^ted an attack from a height 
it) the rear of the fort, which resulted in a sharp conflict, chiefly 
with Indians in a thick wood, and the retreat of our troo])S." 

Capt. Butler in his person was not a large man, but of un- 
common strength and agility. In youth he was a celebrated 
wrestler. 

During the war there were conflicts on the ocean. The sloop- 
ofwar Hornet, Caj>tain James Lawrence, compelled the 
British brig Peacock to strike her ctjlors after an engagement 
continuing but fifteen minutes. Lawrence was promoted to 
the command of the Chesapeake. 

James Butler Sigourney of Boston was a sailing master in the United 
States Navj-; entered as midshipman, March — , 1809 ; was a favorite pupil 
of Lawrence, on board tlie Wasp. Was sailing master of the Nautilus 



War c?/ 1812. 397 

when captured, June 10, 1812; was carried to Halifax, June 28, by the 
Shannon; he soon came back to the States, and was invited to the same 
station on board the Hornet, by his old master, but was unable to 
accept, because the Hornet sailed before his exchange was ratified by 
our government. He was ordered to the southern station and com- 
manded the schooner As^). July 14, 1813, he was attacked in the 
Potomac by three British barges, which he successfully repelled, but an 
hour afterward was overpowered by a force of fifty men, in five boats, 
who boarded, exclaiming, no quarter. Of the Asi^s ci-ew, twenty-one in 
all, some threw themselves overboard; the rest .(except two) were put 
to death. Sigourney kept his station, and was cut down when only 
three men were left on decli, one of whom begged in vain for qnarter. — 
Boston Gazette, August 9, 1813. 

On the 1st of June, 1813, Lawrence, with his vessel ill- 
equipped and ill-manned, put to sea from Boston, to engage 
the British frigate Shannon, which, with a well-disciplined 
crew, was lying off the harbor inviting an attack. The action 
was short, but very furious. In a few minutes the Chesajpeahe 
became exposed to a raking fire, and her chief officers were 
killed or wounded. Then the enemy boarded her and hauled 
down the colors. Lawrence, after he was mortally wounded, 
gave his last heroic order : " Don't give up the ship." This 
was the most memorable sea-light of the year. 

Perry's victory on Lake Erie, in caj^turing British vessels, 
was a great achievement. General Harrison hastened to profit 
by this victory of Perry on Lake Erie. Embarking his troops 
on board of Perry's fleet, he crossed to Canada. Harrison 
pursued the enemy and overtook them, October 5th, waiting 
to give battle. He charged upon the English, broke their 
ranks, and caused them to surrender. 

The savages made a brave resistance, but Tecumseh*, their 
leader, was soon slain, and they were forced to take flight. 

The victories of Perry and Harrison brought the war to an 
end on the north-western frontier. 



=*• Tecumseh was a noted Indian warrior; he was chief of the 
Shawnees and had taken part against the Americans in many conflicts. 



398 The Records of Oxford. 

Owen Qiiinn, in tlie war of 1>12, h native of Ireland, had 
been impressed into the British service when at his home in 
Ireland, in early yonth. His recollections of that home were of 
his mother standing at the gate of her cottage taking her last 
leave of him, as he was hurried away, with the sound of drum 
and fife, to join in the Peninsula war in S])ain. He fought 
against the French, was stationed at the Straits of Gibraltar, 
and from his tall figure lie was a grenadier while in service. 
In 1813 his regiment was ordered from Spain to the United 
States to fight against the Americans. Owen Qninn was in 
the British blockade on the Atlantic coast, which was stationed 
at the Penobscot river in Maine. 

While on board of the British man-of-war he was detailed 
to go on shore to collect wood for the ship. While on shore 
he fled to the American camp, was pursued as a deserter, but 
just escaped being made a prisoner and shot. In sympathy 
for American liberty he enlisted in the United States service 
to the end of the war. He knew by deserting he lost all hope 
of his pension from the British government, as he was 
promised, if he were disabled or retired with an honorable dis- 
charge from service. He became a resident of Oxford (now 
Webster). He died in Sutton, Mass., December, 1871, aged 
82 years. 

Captain William Googings of Oxford, it is said, was a native 
of Maine, born in 1768 ; in his youth went to Nantucket, 
where he continued for thirty two years a sailor and whaleman ; 
later in the merchant service, and became part owner and cap- 
tain of a vessel. In the war of 1812 his vessel, with a valu- 
able cargo, of which he was also part owner, was captured by 
French privateers, and he was taken to France. A few years 
after his return he came to Oxford, and resided in a cottage on 
the old Charlton road near the river, west from the north com- 
mon. Captain Googings died June, 1832. 



The Mexican War. 300 

Clo^e- of the War. 

In December, 1814, a fleet of over 10,000 troops arrived 
from England to capture New Orleans. 

On tlie 8th of JaDuary, 1815, the British, under Sir Edward 
Pakenham, made an attack upon the intrenchments a few 
miles below New Orleans, but failed of success — General 
Jackson obtaining a great victory for the Americans in this 
engagement. 

The war had now continued for more than two years and a 
half before the battle of New Orleans. 

A treaty of peace was signed at Ghent, in Belgium, Decem- 
ber 24:, 1814, by American and British Commissioners. 

News traveled slowly in these days. 

The Mexican War. 

President Polk's administration was most notable by the 
war with Mexico, which resulted frou) the annexation of 
Texas. Permitting Texas to join the ITnion was received l)y 
the Mexicans as an act of hostility. 

While war was impending. General Taylor received orders 
from government to advance into Texas with a body of Ameri- 
can troops to repel a threatened invasion of the Mexicans. In 
August, 1845, he formed his camp at Corpus Christi, just 
within the boundary of the disputed territory. The early part 
of the following year, having received orders to advance, he 
moved to the Rio Grande, opposite Matamoras. 

Now on the east bank of the river, he commenced building 
a fort (Fort Brown). Before arriving at the Rio Grande he 
established at Point Isabel a place of deposit for supplies. 

May 8, on returning from Point Isabel, he met General 
Arista with the Mexican army, and gained a victory over the 
Mexicans on the plains of Palo Alto. The next day. May 9, 
General Taylor advancing again met the Mexicans at Resaca 
de la Palma, and totally defeated them. On the 18th of May 



400 The Records of Oxford. 

Taylor crossed iho river llio Grande and took possession of 
Matamoras. In a few months General Taylor moved bis 
army of aboat 6,000 men against Monterey, and on tbe 24:tb 
of September, after a siege of four days and a series of assaults, 
the city was surrendered to the Americans. In January, 1847, 
a large part of General Taylor's best troops were withdrawn 
to aid General Scott, who had been ordered to invade Mexico 
by way of Yera Cruz. 

Santa Anna,general-in-chief of the Mexican forces, collected 
20,000 troops, and made an attack upon Taylor and Wool in a 
narrow raountain-pafS, near the plantation Baena Vista. Tlie 
battle commenced in the afternoon of the 22d of February, 
1847, and continued tlie next day till night, when Santa Anna 
retreated. This victory terminated the war in that part of 
the country held l\v Taylor's forces, From t!iis time the 
Mexicans made efforts to resist the invasion which General 
Scott was to make to the very centre of her j>ower. General 
Scott had landed his army near Vera Cruz, March 9, 1.^47, and 
soon had completely invested the city. After a furious bom- 
bardment of four days from the army and fleet, Vera Cruz 
and the strong castle San Juan d'Ulloa surrendered. A few 
days afterward Scott l)egan his march toward the city of 
Mexico. At the mountain-pass of Cerro Gordo he met Santa 
Anna, who had collected another army. On the 1 8th of April 
the Americans totally routed the Mexicans. 

The victors continued their march to Pueblo, which was 
surrendered by the Mexicans. The fortified camp of Contreras, 
twelve miles south of Mexico, was assaulted and carried. 
This success was followed l)y the brilhant victory of Cheru- 
busco. On the Sth of September General Worth led his col- 
umn against the forces of the enemy in a strong stone struc- 
ture. " The battle fouglit on that day was the most bloody of 
the war, but the position was won." 

Five days later the Americans stormed the rock and castle 



The Mexican War. A0\ 

of Chapultepcc, the last strong defeiiPe of tlie capital, and 
routed the whole Mexican army. 

September 14, 1847, the Americans entered the city of 
Mexico and raised the " stars and stripes " over the national pal- 
ace. The fall of the caj)ital was the close of the war. 

The United States j^ained by their brilliant victories in 
Mexico a large territory stretching to the Pacific coast. 

A treaty was concluded in February, 1848, ajid peace was 
proclaimed by President Polk the following July. 

Gen. Nelson Henry Davis of Oxford was distinguished in 
the Mexican war. 

" Nelson H., s^n of Col. Stephen Davis of Oxford, studied at 
Leicester Academy, appointed upon nomination of Levi Lin- 
coln (then representative to Congress from lifth Massachusetts 
district) as cadet at West Point, where he entered July 1, 
1841, was graduated 1840, went the same year into the Mexi- 
can war under Gen. Taylor at Monterey, joined at Tainpico 
the forces of Gen. Scott, under whom he served thi-ongh the 
war ; was in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battle of Cerro Gordo, 
the storming of Contreras, the taking of Cherubusco, and in 
later engagements in the valley of Mexico, and the taking of 
the capital. He left Mexico with the army in June, 1848, 
and in November of that year sailed from New York with 
troops around Cape Horn, arriving in April at Monterey, Cal. 
There he served until December, 1853, first as commissary and 
later with his company at remote stations in the Indian coun- 
try, w^here subsistence was difficult, and with the Clear Lake 
and the Russian River Indians had two notable and successful 
eno-ao-ements under the brave captain, later General, Nathaniel 
Lyon. This was said to have been one of the most brilliant 
Indian campaigns in the army service. 

" His health having been impaired by exposure he obtained 
leave of absence, and in 1853 visited China and the Sandwich 
Islands. In January, 1854, he returned to New York, and 
51 



402 The Records of Oxford. 

for a year was on recruitinir duty at Boston, In the fall of 
1S55 he went into frontier service at Forts Leavenworth, Ran- 
dall, Ridgely, Ripley, and on field duty in the Indian country, 
continninf; until the spring of 1861, when ho was ordered east 
to engage in the late civil war. At the first battle of Bull 
Rnn he was acting major of the ' Regular Battalion,' and on 
Se{)teraber 4, 1861, was by Gov. Andrew commissioned as 
colonel of the 7th Regt., Mass, Vols., which ofiice he held un- 
til November 12, when he was appointed assistant inspector- 
general of the army, ordered to other duties and resigned his 
colonel's commission. 

*' As assistant inspector-general he served in the field, in the 
" Army of the Potomac," at the head quarters of Sumner, 
McClellan, Hooker and Meade, and was in all the battles in 
which these Coiimanders were engaged while he served under 
their commands, and was specially efficient at trie battle of 
Gettysburg. Later he was ordered to the department of New 
Mexico as general inspecting otiicer. The duties in this field 
required almost constant traveling through a vast extent of 
wild country infested with hostile Indians, the climate, em- 
bracing extremes of heat and cold, rendering the service severe. 
Many movements were made at night to avoid the enemy. 
" On one of these campaigns, after repeated night marches in 
which several Indian Rancherias were captured, * - - a 
forced march was made at night over a high range of moun- 
tains to the reported camp of the Indians. * * * Near 
the summit the escort was divided into two detachments, a 
third having been left behind in a canon to guard the ])ack- 
traiii. These detachments, which were about five miles apart, 
attacked simultaneously at dawn two camps of the Apaches, 
who were completely surprised," A short and sharp contest 
ensued, resulting in large loss to the Indians. This was the 
first severe chiisdseinent they had received for many years, 
and in recognition of his services in this afliair the Le«j:islature 



The Mexican War. 403 

of Arizona pa&setl Davio a vote of thanks, and the United 
States government conferred on him the rank of colonel in the 
army. 

" Later he was for several years inspecting ofticer of the De- 
partment of the Missouri, to which the District of New 
Mexico was then attached. From this service he was assigned 
to special duty under the War Department, with station at 
New York city, for three years, his duties covering inspections 
in the Western States and Territories to Alaska. He was next 
inspector-general of the Division of the Atlantic, under Gen. 
Hancoclc, until Jnly 1, 1881, when he was assigned to the 
same duty in the Division of the Missoui'i, under Gen. Sheri- 
dan, with station at Chicago. On the death of Gen. D. B. 
Sacket, chief inspector-general of the army, Gen. Davis in 
March, 1885, was promoted as his successor, assuming the 
duties of that ottice at Washington. 

" On September 20, 1885, by the operation of the law he was 
retired from active service as brigadier-general. 

" Gen. Davis held every grade of rank in the army from 
second lieutenant to brigadier-general, and head of the In- 
spector-General's Department ; was brevetted for services in 
the Mexican War, the War of the Rebellion and Indian fights, 
and traveled on duty in each and every State and Territory 
of the Union. 

"His services in the Civil War were of the highest import- 
ance, and as acting inspector he undoubtedly had a more com- 
plete knowledge of the conditions of the ' Army of the Poto- 
mac' in its details than any other official in the country. 

" Later Gen. Davis resided in New York city, and was several 
years president of the Colorado Smelting Co., with an office in 
New York. He died suddenly of ajioplexy at Governor Island, 
N. Y., May 15, 1890." 



404 TJie Records of Oxford. 

The Civil War. 

On the ir)tli of Aj)ril, 1861, the day following- the evacua- 
tion of Fort Sumter, President Lincolti called for seventy-five 
thousand troops to serve for three months. 

The national troops, only a few thousand in all, were sta- 
tioned on the remote frontiers, while most of the war ships 
w^ere dispersed in distant seas. 

Friday, April 19, witnessed the contest hetween the Sixth 
Massachusetts Regiment and the Baltimore mob. 

It was on this eventful evening that gentlemen in Oxford 
assembled witli great enthusiasm to make arrangements for the 
immediate organization of a volunteer company of soldiers. 
Hon. Alexander De Witt, president on the occasion. — In a 
few days a sufficient number of volunteers were obtained to 
assure the success of a company. The company was organized 
May 4, under the militia laws of the State, and in honor of 
Col. Alexander De Witt, was called the "De Witt Guards." 

The town provided for the members of the company, pro- 
curing uniforms and aiding families. On June 1, an excur- 
sion was made to Worcester, where the company were enter- 
tained. When passing through Sutton the company halted at 
Freeland Place, the residence of the late Captain Freeland. 
On June 28, the company went into camp at Worcester, and 
was attached to the Fifteenth Regiment, Massachusetts Volun- 
teers, and designated as Company E. Camp duty was con- 
tinued until August 8, when under the command of Col. 
Devens, the regiment left en route for Washington, and arrived 
on the 10th. An encampment was made on the 12th, at 
Meridian Hill, under the name of Camp Kalorama. 

Note. — In November, 1861, the town voted to pay board bills of 
soldiers not exceeding $267.85. Of this, |133 were paid to L. A. Presby, 
tavern-keeper. The amount paid by the town to the " De Witt Guards" 
for drilling was 5^3,084, and for uniforms $1,043. The bounties paid 
before the spring of 1863 amounted to $10,650. The amount paid to 



The Chil War. 405 

soldiers' families in the fiscal yeareuding 1862 was $1,707; 18G3, $4,283; 
1864, $4,904; 1865, $6,708; 1866, State aid, $2,691. [Town Reports.] 

Through the efficiency of Lament B. Corbin, first selectman, as re- 
cruiting officer, all demands for men were promptly met. In June, 1864, 
the town by a unanimous vote expressed its thanks to him "for the ener- 
getic, faithful and patriotic manner " in which he had performed the 

duties. 

April, 1864, the following appeared in the Worcester Sfy : " The town 
of Oxford considers itself the banuer town of the county, having filled 
all quotas with four or five men in the field in excess, and all have been 
raised without war meetings, extra bounties or purchases of men out of 
town." 

The following names are found registered as the De Witt 
Guards: Watson, capt., Nelson Bartholomew, 1st lieut., Ber- 
nard B. Vassal!, 2d lieut., Luther C. Torrey, 1st sergt., Leo- 
nard E. Thayer, student. Henry W. Arnold, Albert Prince, 
George B. Works, Peleg F. Murray, Charles A. Bacon, Amos 
H. Shumway, Pliny Allen, John M. Norcross, Loren C. Hoyle, 
Sutton, Joseph N. Williams, George N. Carr, Patrick Moore, 
Oscar L. Guild, musicians, Ellas B. Ellis, Kensington, Ct., 
Charles Sutton, wagoner. 

Ithiel T, Johnson went August 1, 1861 with Co. E, 15th 
Regt., as attendant of Lieut. Bartholomew. Feb. 6, 1865, went 
again and was news agent in Hancock's Veteran Corps. 

Oxford in the Civil War, 1861-1865. 
Company E, Fifteenth Regiment. 
Peleg F. Murray, sergt., Amos H. Shumway, sergt., John 
A. Thurston, sergt., Lieut. Nelson Bartholomew, Edward 
Booth, George W. Cross, George P. Davis, James H. Davis, 
Alfred W. Davis, Antonio Phillips, Francis C. Pope, Lyman 
Phipps, Vernon F. Bindge, Edward Ennis, Patrick Elliot, 
Herbert N. Fuller, Henry Hock, Cyrus Learned, Elliot F. Mc- 
Kinstry, Francis A. Fletcher, Chester I. Smith, Estes E. Baker, 
James D. Adams, James (). Bartlett, Valentine Suter, Edward 



4o6 The Records of Oxford. 

Ciidworth, Henry C. Hajden, Charles F. Wlieelock, George 
S. Williams, Albert L. Williams, Patrick Holden, Rufus Vi- 
cars, Cliristopber Yicers, Pliuy Allen, corp., Simon Carson, 
Corp., Horace P. Howe, Corp., Anthony Murphy, corp., John 
Toomey, corp,, Nathaniel Yiall, corp., Joseph H. Williams, 
Corp., Andrew B. Yeomans, corp., Oscar L. Gnild, musician, 
Charles A. Bacon, Matthew Brennan, Patrick Brennan, 
Samuel A. Clark, Daniel Cobb, Otis Coburn, Edward Cud- 
worth, F. L, Kirby, Leander T. Kirl)y, James H. Davis, 
Horatio C. Dodi^e, Caleb F. Dudley, James Duffy, Frank 
Dupre, John Eckersley, Joseph E. Fellows, Patrick Feighan, 
Herbert N. Fuller, Joseph M. Green, George W. Gunston, 
Joseph E. Haskell, John W. Humphrey, James Plilton, Joseph 
Jennison, Thomas King, Edward Lovely, Edwin E. Rindge, 
George O. Raymond, Jerome P. Southwick, Bernard Schmidt, 
Felix Sherbino, Edwin A. Martin, Julius N. Bellows, Josiah 
C Brown, Daniel V. Childs, John Dore, Amos P. Newton, 
Jr., William Robbins, Albert Foskett, George Bacon, William 
Ronan, Leonard E. Thayer, Albeit S. Moffitt, Margins E. 
Steere, Timothy Moynahan, Anthony Murphy, William Y, 
Woodburj', Alexander Thompson, Thomas Thompson, Samuel 
Thomps(m, John Tully, — Mac Lynch. 

Battles in which Company E, Fifteenth Regiment, Massachu- 
setts Yolunteers was engaged. Ball's Bluff, Oct. 21, 1861 ; 
Siege of Yorktown, April 5 to May 5, 1862 ; Fair Oaks, May 
31, 1862 ; Savage Station, June 29, 1862 ; White Oak Swamp, 
June 30, 1862 ; Glendale, later, same day ; Malvern Hill, 
July 1, 1862; Vienna, Sept. 2, 1862, on i-etreat from Fairfax; 
South Mountain, Sep. 14, 1862; Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862; 
Fredericksburg, Dec. 11 to 16, 1862; second Fredericksburg, 
May 34, 1863 ; Gettysburg, July 2, 3, 4, 1863 ; Bristow Sta- 
tion, Oct. 14, 1863; second Bull Run, Oct. 15, 1863; Mine 
Run or Locust Grove, Nov. 27, 2S, 29, 1863; Wilderness, 
May 5 to 9, 1864 ; Laurel Hill, May 10, 1864 ; Farna Hill, 



The Civil War. 407 

Maj 11, 1864; Spottsjlvania, May 12, 13, 18, 1864; Cold 
Harbor, June 3 to 11, 1S64; before Tetersburg, June 18 to 
22, 1864. 

Gen. George B. McClellan, wlio had just conducted a suc- 
cessful campaign in West Virginia, was summoned to Wash- 
ington to take command of the troops on the Potomac. This 
army soon became; immensely strong, but made no general ad- 
vance until the next year. tSorae montlis wei-e spent in organ- 
izing and disciplining the grand army. On the 1st of Novem- 
ber McClellan succeeded the aged chieftain, Scott, as general- 
inchief of the armies of the United States. 

In the autumn a severe action took place at Ball's Bluff, on 
the Potomac, above Wasliington. Nearly two thousand Union 
troops sent across the river from the Maryland side by Gen. 
Stone, the commander in that vicinity, were defeated in a bat- 
tle, October 21, with heavy lo^^s. Col. Baker, a national sena- 
tor from Oregon, and the leader of the expedition, was among 
the killed. 

Josepii Jennison, Jr., and James Hilton were killed ; Ber- 
nard B. Vassa.ll, lieutenant, prisoner ; John M. Norcross, Na- 
thaniel A. Yiall, Joseph H. Williams and Patrick Moore 
(both wounded), corporals; privates Amidon, Daniel Cobb, 
Coburn, Thomas Conroy, William Conroy, Geo. P. Davis, 
William M. Davis, Dockhaui, Duffy, Eckersley, Emerson, 
Fellows, Feighan (wounded), Mclntire, McKinstry, Moffit 
(wounded), Moyuahan, Phipps (wounded), Yernon f'. Rindge, 
Schmidt were taken prisoners ; 5 officers, 22 privates ; total, 27. 
The number of meji of the regiment who crossed was about 
625, of these only one- half returned. 

McClellan moved forward toward Richmond, and establish- 
ing his base of supplies at White House, on the Pamimkey, 
threw the left wing of his array across the Chickahominy, a 
ve)-y few miles from the rebel capital. This wing was attacked 
May 31, 1862, near Fair Oaks and Seven Pines. The battle 



408 The Records of Oxford. 

lasted part of two days, and at its close the Confederates fell 
back to Richmond. The loss was very severe on each side. 
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate commander, was 
severely wounded, and Geti. liobert E. Lee was afterward as- 
sif^ned to command in his place. 

McClellaii had been expectin*^ to be re-enforced by McDow- 
ell, who was at Fredericksburg, in command of over forty thou- 
sand men. To keep the waj^ open for McDowell to join him, 
he had sent forward a column under Gen. Fitz-John Porter, 
who routed a body of tlie enemy at Hanover Court House, 
four days before the battle of Fair Oaks. But a bold enter- 
prise performed by the Confederate Gen. Jackson, popularly 
known as " Stonewall " Jackson, prevented the junction of 
McDowell and McClellan. 

On July 1, 18(52, occurred the battle of Malvern Hill, the 
last of the Richmond battles, in which the Confederates were 
repulsed at every point. The Fifteenth Regiment was en- 
gaged, but the loss was small. 

The fighting continued during seven days, known as the 
Seven Days before Richmond, ending in a bloody repulse of 
the Confederates at Malvern Hill. The other principal bat- 
tles had been fought at Mechaniesville. 

September 17, was fought the great battle of Antietam, 
which raged from dawn till dark, and left both armies greatly 
shattered ; but Lee was forced to recross the Potomac. 

This was one of the great battles of the war. Each army 
numbered about one hundred thousand men, and the contest 
continued from morning till night. During the night the Con- 
federates retreated. In this struggle the Fifteenth lost heavily'. 
The casualties in Company E were : killed, Serg. Amos H. 
Shumway (buried on the field) ; Alfred W". Davis, died of 
wounds Se[)t. 22 ; John H. Curran, James H. Davis, Alexan- 
der Thompson, Conrad Amptaeur, Charles H. Wheelock, with 
many wounded. 



The Civil War. 409 

Onpeceiiiber 13, 1862, occurred the first battle of Fredericks- 
burg (Gen. Bnrnside being in command), in which the Fifteenth 
was engaged. Tlie Confederates fought behind intrench- 
ments and the Unionists in tiie open field, with great loss. 
One, Edward Lovely, wounded, and one, Emory F. Bailey, 
missing, in Company E. A note (in Company E Records)' 
dated December 11, says : " Regiment marched .across the river 
to Fredericksburg — in active service till the lOth — then 
ordered to old camp near Falmouth." 

On the 3d crossed to Fredericksburg and joined, under Gen. 
Hooker, in the second attack on the Confederate works. Fail*- 
ing in the attempt, it recrossed the river the same night, and 
for four days acted as picket guard and support of a\attery 
near the river. - On the 8th, '' moved back to the hill oppo- 
site the Lacy Flonse," where an encampment was made, con- 
tinuing about five weeks. 

1863. Li Virginia, Gen. Hooker superseded Bnrnside, and was 
severely beaten at Chancellorsville (May 2, 3) by Lee, who soon 
after set out for a second invasion of the loyal States. General 
Meade superseded Hooker, beat Lee in tlie great and decisive 
battle of Gettysburg (July 1, 2, 3),and pursued him into Yii-ginia. 

In a Spy editorial, July 23, 1864, occurs the following:* 

Gen. Lee, thinking the Union lines weakening, precipitated 
upon their left center his reserve of eighteen thousand of his 
best troops, intending to sweep the field. The Union veterans 
were equal to the emergency, met the assault with coolness and 
bravery, forced back the attacking column, and decided the 
fortunes of the day. 

*The next day (July 3) the battle was renewed. The shock was terri- 
ble. Late in the afternoon, when the rebel lines showed signs of waver- 
ing, the colors of the Fifteenth were ordered (by Gen. John Gibbon) to 
advance. The remnant of the regiment rallied to their support, and as 
if by one impulse the whole line pushed forward with a shout and car- 
ried the position. Tlie rebel army was defeated." 
52 



4 1 o The Records of Oxford. 

Of Company E, privates Geo. W, Cross and Michael Flynn 
were killed, and Capt. Prince, Corp. Anthon}' Murphy and 
Owen Tonar, Robert Lusty and Thomas King, privates, 
wounded. Flynn was on detached service in a Rhode Island 
battery, and is said to have l)een among- tlie bravest. 

1863. The Federals, under Rosecrans, were defeated at the 
Chickamauga (September 19 and 20), and besieged in Chat- 
tanooga. Tiie siege was raised, and the enemy thoroughly de- 
feated by Grant in a three days' battle, beginning November 
23. Soon after the Confederates were repulsed before Knox- 
ville by Burnside. 

Gen. Meade still held command of the Army of the Poto- 
mac, which had the task of conquering Lee's army. Lient.- 
Gen. Grant had his head-quarters with the Army of the Poto- 
mac, and took the general direction of military affairs. 

This army crossed the Rapidan, May 4, 1864, and the next 
day Lee hurled his heavy columns upon it, in the region known 
as the Wilderness.* There a terrilic battle raged for two days, 
at the close the Confederates withdrawing behind their in- 
trenchments. Those were too strong to be assaulted. Grant, 



* Of the battle of the Wilderness, a recent writer has said: " It was 
the most strange and indescribable battle in history. A battle which 
no man saw, and in which artillery was useless. A battle fought in 
dense woods and tangled brake, when manoeuvre was impossible, 
where the lines of battle were invisible to the commanders, and whose 
position could only be determined by the rattle and roll and flash of 
musketry, and where the enemy was also invisible." Another says; 
"Nothing can be stranger or more difficult to understand and picture 
mentally than tliis death grapple between 300,000 men in virtual dark- 
ness, this desperate struggle, costing from 12,000 to 15,000 lives, fought 
out without perception on eitlier side of the entities tliat were moving 
rifle-trigger and gun-lock. The firing was guided wholly by the flaslies 
of the opposing volleys. No men were to be seen. Yet death was 
everyw^here. In no battle of the war could the courage of the combat- 
ants have been so severely tried as here. "—i\^. Y. Tribune^ June 22, 1888. 



TJie Civil War. 411 

resolving to go on, therefore made a flank movement, but 
again found his foe before him at Spottsylvania, where 
the rival armies had a long, fierce struggle. Another flank 
movement was followed by a fight at the North Anna, and 
another by the bloody Federal repulse at Cold Plarbor. When- 
ever Grant made a flanking advance, Lee fell back rapidly, 
and behind breastworks again confronted him. 

The great battles of the Civil War were Gettysburg, Spott. 
sylvania, Wilderness, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Chickamauga, 
Cold Harbor, Fredericksburg, Manassas, Shiloh, Stone River 
and Petersburg. Gettysburg was the greatest battle of the 
war ; Antietam the bloodiest. The largest army was assembled 
by the Confederates at the seven days' fight ; by the Union, at 
the Wilderness. 

On the 5th and 6th of May was fought the battle of the 
Wilderness, with many losses and no decided advantage to 
either side. On the 9th, after three days' hard fighting, the 
Confederates retreated with 13,000 loss. On the 11th and 
12th occurred the battle of Spottsylvania, when 4,000 Con- 
federates were captured. 

General Wilson, with thirteen thousand horsemen, sent out 
by General Thomas, was making a great raid through the 
heart of Alabama, capturing cities, and destroying railroads 
and other property useful to an enemy. General Stoneman, 
from East Tennessee, was also making a great raid with 
cavalry in South-western Virginia and the western part of 
North Carolina. 

General Sheridan, with near ten thousand troopers, burst- 
ing through the Shenandoah Valley, had fallen again upon the 
little army of Early, and captured most of it. Then he de- 
stroyed the canal west of Richmond, and tore up the railroads 
north of the city. Sweeping around easterly, he joined the 
Union army before Petersburg. 

Grant opened the final campaign on the 29th of Marcli. 



412 The Records of Oxford. 

On tlie iiioniinii; of that day-he set in motion strong columns 
of his army to pass arouiid the end of the intrenchments 
sowth-wust of Pcteisburg, so as to get to the enemy's rear. 
Fighting began on the same day, and on the Ist of April, 
Sheridan, in command of these flanking columns, thoroughly 
defeated part of Lee's army, at the cross-roads called Five 
Forks. 

Early in the next morning Grant made a general assault 
upon the whole line of intrenchments before Petersburg, and 
carried it, driving the Confederates to their inner works. 
Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet fled from Kichmond. Lee's 
army abandoned'? the cities which they had so long and so 
bravely defended, and hurried westward, aiming to unite with 
Johnston's army in North Carolina. April 3 the Union troops 
occupied both Petersburg and Richmond. 

The saddest story of all the war is that which tells of the 
cruel treatment of Union prisoners in the South. We would 
not here describe, if we could, the terrible sufferings which 
the captives had to endure in Libby prison, on Belle Isle, and 
above all, in that great prison-pen at Andersouville, from heat, 
cold, hunger, from diseases which should have been prevented, 
and from outi-ages committed by brutal gnards. 

Note. — The government sent exiDeditions for the capture of Fort 
Sumter and ^Charleston. Early in April, 1863, Admiral Du Pont, with 
a fleet of iron-clads, assailed the defenses of Charleston Harbor, but he 
was soon obliged to retire. Afterward land and naval forces, under 
General Gillmore and Admiral Dahlgren, attacked these defenses. In 
July Gillmore seized part of Morris Island, and tried to take Fort 
Wagner, on the other part, by storming it, but failed with sad loss. 
By a siege, the Confederates were at lengtli forced to abandon this fort. 
Fort Sumter was bombarded and made a heap of ruins, but the garrison 
still held it, and Charleston also withstood the long siege, although 
Gillmore tiirew shells into the city from Morris Island. 

Note. — The 1st of February, 1805, saw Sherman again on the march. 
Moving northward, he easily brushed aside the small bodies of the 



The Civil War. 413 

enemy which offered any annoyance, and on the 17th occupied 
Cohimbia, the capital of South Carolina. On the same day Charleston 
was abandoned by its garrison, whose safety was now threatened by 
Sherman's movements. On the following day, February 18, Gillmore's 
troops raised the national flag over Fort Sumter, and took possession 
of the city. 

Oxford Soldiers. 
Tenth Regiment. 
Co. E : Francis E. Cadwell. Charles S. Knight, corp. 

Twelfth Regiment. 
Co. C : Abellino S. Burt, disability, lost an arm, May 5, 1864, 
at Wilderness. Thomas J. Ciimmiugs. Co. F: John H. 
Wellman. Co. C : Daniel F. Bacon. Co. H : George Bacon, 
July 14, 1863; wounded May 6, 1864, at Wilderness; d. 
June 6, 1864, at Alexandria, Ya. Samuel C. Smith, k. June 
21, 1864, at Petersburg, Va. Co. I : James Boyce. 

Fifteenth Regiment. 
Co. A : George H. Stevens, serg., July 12, 1861 ; trans. 
July 29, 1861, io Co G ; wounded May 12, 1864, at Spott- 
sylvania; July 28, 1864; d. June 9, 1884, at Oxford, se. 39. 
Edward G. Gee, Aug. 14, 1862 ; March 26, 1864, to re-enlist 
for Leominster; trans. July 27, 1864, to 20th Reg. Co. C: 
George O. Raymond, Aug. 8, 1862 ; d. of wounds at Gettys- 
burg, July 22, 1863. Co. D : Elbridge Acker, Aug. 11, 1862; 
Feb. 11, 1864, to re-enlist; trans. July 27, 1864, to 20th Reg. 
Charles H. Lamb, July 12, 1861 ; Feb. 4, 1864, to re-enlist; 
trans. July 27, 1864, to 20th Reg. Fred. T. Maple, Dec. 26, 
1863 ; trans. July 27, 1864, to 20th Reg. James E. White, 
July 12,1861; deserted March 3, 1863. William M. Blod- 
gett, for Worcester, July 12, 1861 ; k. at Fair Oaks, May 31, 
1862. Co. G: Adam McKniglit, July 28, IS63; trans. July 
27, 1864, to 20th Reg. C. 11 : ^^athan A. Seaver, July 25, 



414 Tlie Records of Oxford. 

1861; July i28, 1864. Co. I: Franklin Hovey, musician; 
June 20, 1861 ; trans. July 27, 1864, to 20th Reg. Henry S. 
Dealing, June 20, 1861 ; disc. 1862. James Maboney, July 
31, 1861; Nov. 1, 1862, disability [see 1st Reg. Cav.]. 
Antoine Pbillips, May 20, 1861; May 12, 1862, disability 
[see 51st and 57tb Regs.]. Micbael Powers, Aug. 1, 1861 ; 
disc. 1861, minority. Co. K: Patrick Elliott, Aug. 8, 1862; 
Sept. 28, 1863; wounded; d. Dec. 4, 1863, at Oxford [Mem. 
tablets]. Unassigned, James Burke, Aug. 1, 1862 ; deserted, 

Seventeenth Regiment. 
Co. G: Patrick O'Dwyer, Sept. 2, 1864; Jiine 30, 1865. 
Unassigned, Geo. W. Farrington, Aug. 8, 1864; was in 2d H. 
Art.; trans, to 17tb, Jan. 17, 1865. 

Eighteenth Regiment. 
Co. E: John M. Badger, Aug. 24, 1861; Dec. 13,1862, 
disability. Co. G: Edward I. Willis, July 14, 1863; trans. 
Oct. 1, 1864, to 32d Reg. 

Nineteenth Regiment. 
Co. A: Orrin B. Chaffee, Feb. 11, 1865; June 30, 1865. 
Co. E : George H. Davis, March 25, 1865 ; May 6, 1865. 

Twentieth Regiment. 

(All transferred from the Fifteenth Regiment.) 

Co. E: Otis Coburn, serg., Jan. 4, 1864; Juue 12, 1865; 
d. March 18, 1888. Edward Cudworth, serg., Dec. 25, 1863 ; 
July 16, 1865. Elbridge Acker, Feb. 11, 1864 ; July 27, 1865. 
Joseph E. Fellows, Dec. 25, 1863 ; d. March 29, 1865, at An- 
dersonville. Uerbert N. Fuller, Feb. 26, 1864; d. Feb. 20, 
1865, at Andersonville. Co. G : Fred T. Maple, musician, 
Dec. 25, 1863 ; July 16, 1865. Charles H. Lamb, Feb. 4, 1864 ; 
July 16,1865. Adam McKnight, July 28, 1863; July 16, 
18G5. Unassigned, Franklin Hovey [see 15th Reg.]. 



The Civil War. 415 

Tiventy-first Regiment. 
Band : A. Dorr Wood. William F. Hervey, Aug. 23, 1861 
Aug. 11, 18G2. Co. A: Samuel P. Hall, Aug. 23, 1861 
Jan. 2, 1862, disability. Co. E : Clifford Micer, Aug. 23, 1861 
Dec. 4, 1862, disability. Josiah G. Sawyer, Jan. 2, 1861 
trans, to 56th Reg. Co. F: Josiah Redfern, Aug. 19, 1861 
Jan. 1, 1864, to re-enlist [see 56th Reg.]. Henry C. Wister, 
Aug. 19, 1861 ; deserted. 

TiDe7ity-fo urth liegimeni. 
Co. I : William J. Lamb, Jan. 2, 1864 ; Jan. 20, 1866. 

Twenty-fifth Regiment. 
Co. B: Charles W. Adams, Dec. 18, 1863; July 13, 1865. 
Co. C : James D. Thompson, Aug. 12, 1864; July 13, 1865. 
Co. D: Benjamin F. Barnes, March 6, 1865; July 13, 1865. 
James O. Bartlett, Sept. 27, 1863; Jan. 2, 1864, to re-enlist; 
served to July 13, 1865; d. May 1, 1866, at Charlton, of 
wounds at Cold Harbor [credited to Douglas on Adj. -Gen. 
Rep.]. Benjamin B. Bartlett, Sept. 27, 1861; Jan. 18, 1864, 
to re-enlist; served to July 13, 1865. (Jharles E. Grover, 
March 6, 1865 ; July 13, 1865. William H. Morris, Oct. 21, 
1861 ; June, 1862, disability. John A. Taft, Oct. 14, 1861 ; 
Oct. 20, 1864. Nathaniel E. Taft, Oct. 14, 1861; Feb. 15, 

1864, disability. John F. Turner, March 6, 1865 ; July 13, 

1865. Co. F: Calvin S. Aldrich, June 5, 1862 ; Jan. 2, 1864, 
tore-enlist; re-enlisted at Webster ; served to July 13,1865. 
John Gleason, June 6, 1862 ; Jan. 18, 1864, to re-enlist ; served 
till July 13, 1865. Co. G : Valentine Suter, Sept. 18, 1861 ; 
k. Feb. 8, 1862, at Roanoke Island. William C. Wiswall, 
Oct. 16, 1861; Oct. 20, 1864. Co. H: Charles W. Adams, 
Sept. 14, 1861; Dec. 17, 1863; re-enlisted in Co. B. James 
D. Adams, Sept. 14, 1861; Dec. 17, 1863, to re-enlist; served 
to June 3, 1864; d. Sept. 4, 1864, of wounds at Cold Harbor. 



4i6 The Rt cords of Oxford. 

Co. K : Otis D. Cooper, Sept. 21, 1861 ; Dec. 17, 1803, to re- 
enlist; served to June 11, 1865. Alfred J. Kirbj, St-pt. 21, 
1861; Oct. 20, 1864. John B. Monlton, Sept. 21, 1861; 
served to May 16, 1864. Sereno JNcwton, Sept. 16, 1861; 
April 23, 1864-, disability. Unassigned, George II. Kirby, 
July 31, 1862. Joshua Evans, July 31, 1862. 

Twenty-seventh Regiment. 
Co. B : Daniel W. Larned, son of Zenas M., for Athol, serg.; 
Sept. 24, 1861; re-enlisted Dec. 23, 1863; sec. lieut. June 4-, 
1864; lieut. Sept. 29, 1864; capt. May 15, 1865; disc. June 
26, 1865; was wounded three times; went to Kansas, 1878; 
clerk of District Court of Hodgeman county, 1882 to 1886; 
notary public and justice of the peace ; resided lb88, at Jet- 
more, Kansas. 

T'wenty-eightk RegiineiU. 
Co. I: John O'Donnell, Dec. 16, 1861; Dec. 19, 1864. 

Thirty-second Regiment. 
Co. A : A. J. Copp, for Grafton, Nov. 13, 1861 ; d. Oct. 5, 
1862. Sharpsburg, Md. Co. B: Michael Fisher [suh. for 
Emory E. Ilarwood], Dec. 6, 1864; June 6, 1865. Co. E: 
John H. Wellman, July 14, 1863; June 29, 1S65 [see 12th 
and 39th Eegs.]. Co. L: Edward I. Willis, July 14, 1863; 
June 30, 1865 [see 18th Keg.]. 

Thirty -fourth Regiment. 
Co. A: George A. Clapp, serg., July 13, 1862; sec. lieut. 
March 12, 1865; served to June 16, 1865. Patrick Powell, 
July 7, 1862. Efiwin Albce. Michael Eiley, Nov. 25, 1863; 
trans. June 14, 1865, to 24th. Nathaniel C. Walsh, July 13, 
1862; July 16. 1865. Co. C: Estes E. Baker, Aug. 2, 1862; 
d. Aug. 24 '"May?], Ib64, at Anderson ville. Co. F: Horace 



The Civil War. 417 

W. Walsh, serg., Aug. 2, 1862 ; June 16, 1865. Franklin W. 
Carson, July ;,1, 1862; Nov. 17, 1862, disability. Patrick 
Casey, Nov. 25, 1S63 ; trans. June 14, 1865, to 21:th. Co. G : 
Oscar E. Adams, Aug. 5, 1865; June 16, 1865. Charles C. 
Trask, for Westfield, July 31, 1862; trans. Jan. 25, 1864, to 
V. R C; d. July 10, 1890, at Spencer. Horace J. Williams, 
Sept. 2, 1864 ; ^wwq 16, 1865. 

Thirty-ffth Regiment. 
Co. K: Alfred J. Kirby. 

Thirty-sixth Regiment. 
Austin Davis, l^t lieut., Aug. 22, 1862 ; capt. Nov. 13, 1864; 
served to June 8, 1865. Co. C : William A. Smith, son of 
Sanford J., for Worcester; Aug. 11, 1862 ; d. at Nic-holasville, 
Ky., Sept. 27, 1863. Co. F: Edwin A. Martin, corp., Aug. 
9, 1862; k. June 3, 1864, at Cold Harbor. Andrew M. 
Blanding, Aug. 2, 1862; June 8, 1865; d. 1886, at Boston. 
John Dore, Aug. 5, 1862 ; trans. 31 March, 1864, to Y. 11. C; 
d. Sept. 15, 1865, at Oxford. Chester J. Smith, Aug. 6, 1862; 
d. of wounds, June 3, 1864, at Washington, D. C^ Co. G: 
Warren T. Blanding, Aug. 15, 1862; June 8,1865. Peter 
Frazer, Aug. 14, 1862 ; deserted Sept., 1862. Henry Grimley, 
Aug. 11, 1862; Jan. 20, 1863, disability; d. June 21, 1890, at 
Togus, Me. William Jesman, Aug. 14, 1862; deserted 1863. 
Co. I : Eussell Arnold, sei-g., Aug. 2, 1862 ; June S, 1865. 
Julius K Bellows, Aug. 5, 1862; d. of wounds, May 12, 1864, 
at Falmouth, Ya. Josiah G. Brown, Aug. 1, 1862; d. July 
26, 1863, at Milldale, Miss. Oscar H. Brown, Aug. 6, 1862; 
trans. Aug. 3, 1864, to Y. II. C. Daniel Y. Childs, Aug. 2, 
1862; k. May 6, 1864, at Wilderness. Jacob L. Childs, Aug. 
2, 1862; d. April 4, 1864, at Covington, Ky. Truman Mar- 
ble, Aug. 6, 1862; Feb. 7, 1865, disability;"' d. Aug. 1, 1870, 
83. 26. Co. K: Josiah Redfern, Jan. 2, 1862; trans, to 56th 
53 



4 1 8 The Records of Oxford. 

Reg. Francis A. Fletcher ; d. Dec. 6, 1863, at Falmouth, Va.; 
mem. of o6th Reg. [Mem. tal)lets]. The Adj. -Gen. Rep. gives 
Francis Fletcher, Sutton, Aug. 6, 1862; d. Dec. 8, 1862 ; Co. I, 
36th Rq^. 

Tliirty-ninth Regiment. 
Co. D: John H. Wellman, July 14, 1863; trans. June 2, 
1865, to 32d Reg. [see 12th Reg.]. 

Fortieth Regiment. 

Co. C : James A. Cummings, serg., Sept. 1, 1862; June 16, 
1865. 

Forty-second Regiment. 

Co. E : John Brown, for Millbury, Nov. 3, 1862; Aug. 20, 
1863. Co. F : Orrin B. Chaffee, for Brookfield, July 15, 1864; 
Nov. 11, 1861:. Albert W. Cargel, for Leicester, Sept. 30, 1862; 
Aug. 20, 1863. Co. G: Danford Johnson, for Worcester, 
July 21, 1864; Nov. 11, 1864. Co. K: Charles M. Tiffany, 
for Auburn, Nov. 1, 1862; Aug. 20, 1863. 

Fifty-first Regiment {nifie months). 
Co. C: Bowers Davis, Sept. 25, 1862; July 27, 1S63. J. 
Edward Nichols, Sept. 25, 1862; July 27, 1863. Henry W. 
Putnam, Sept. 25, 1862; July 27, 1863. Co. E: William A. 
Copp, for Grafton, Sept. 25, 1862 ; July 27, 1863. Co. G : 
Thomas D. Kimball, capt., Sept. 30,1862; July 27, 1863.* 
John Harwood, 1st serg., Sept. 30, 1862; July 27, 1863. 
Lewis T. Emerson, serg., Sept. 30, 1862; July 27, 1863; d. 
July 23, 1886, at Oxford, ?&. 49. Charles H. Burleigh, serg., 
Sept. 30, 1862; re-enlisted June 1, 1863.* John Grady, Corp., 
Sept. 30, 1862; re-enlisted June 1, 1863.* Charles O. Taft, 
musician, Sept. 30, 1862; re-enlisted June 1, 1863.* Luke 
Bergen, Sept. 30, 1852 ; July 27, 1863. Peter Black, Sept. 

*Ee-enlisted in 2d Reg., Heavy Artillery. 



The Civil War. 419 

30, 186M; July 27, 1803. Philip (Jain, Jr., Oct. 15, 186i4 ; 
July 27, 1863. William A. Campbell, Sept. 30, 1862; July 
27, 1863 [see 2d Cav. Reg.]. Timothy Carney, Sept. 30, 1862; 
Oct. 28, 1862. Charles L. Cummings, Sept. 30, 1862; re- 
enlisted Juno 1, 1863. John Daley, Sept. 30, 1862; July 27, 
1863. Edwin Davis, Sept. 30, 1862 ; Feb. 25, 1863, disability. 
George L. Davis, Sept. 30, 1862 ; July 27, 1863. Stephen 
Eager, Sept. 30, 1862; July 27, 1863; d. Nov. 28, 1864, at 
New Berne, N. C* William S. Forrest, Sept. 30,1862; 
July 27, 1863.* Albert G. Foskett, Sept. 30, 1862.t Daniel 
Foskett, Sept. 30, 1862 ; July 27, 1863. James Grady, Sept. 
30, 1862; July 27, 1863. Thomas Hurst, Sept. 30, 1862; 
July 27, 1863. George H. Keith, Sept. 30, 1862; July 27, 
1863. James H. Kennedy, Sept. 30, 1862; July 27, 1863; 
Daniel Lucy, Sept. 30, 1862; July 27, 1863; d. Jan. 24, 1882, 
at Oxford. Martin Maher, Sept. 30, 1862 ; July 27, 1863. 
Austin W. Martin, Sept. 30, 1862 ; Oct. 22, 1862, disability. 
Patrick Murphy, Sept. 30, 1862; July 27, 1863. John P. 
Newton, Sept. 30, 1862; July 27, 1863. Amasa Phetteplaee, 
Sept. 30, 1862; Oct. 4, 1862. Antonio Philip, Sept. 30, 1862; 
July 27, 1863 [see 57th 'S.q^^.\ Fred A. Presby, Sept. 30, 
1862 ; July 27, 1863. William Sabin, Sept. 30, 1862 ; July 
27, 1863. Daniel Shea, Sept. 30, 1862; July 27, 1863. John 
Welsh, Sept. 30, 1862; deserted. Jason West, Sept. 30, 
1862; re-enlisted June 1, 1863. In Reg. Cornelius P. Davis, 
son of Reuben ; d. July 1, 1863, at New Berne. 

Fifty-fourth Regiment. 
Co. F: Eugene T. Williams, Nov. 28, 1863; Aug. 20, 1865; 
Unassigned, Daniel P. Peters, Sept. 1, 1864; trans, to 55th 
Reg. 

* Re-enlisted in 3d Reg., Heavy Artillery. t Died in service. 



42o The Records of Oxford. 

Fifty-fifth Regiment. 

Co. C: Daniel P. Peters, Sept. 1, 1864; Auj;. 29, 1865 
[see 5-itli Reg.]. 

Fifty-sixth Regiment. 

Co. B: Josiah Redfern, Jan. 1, 18G4; July 12, 1865 
[see 36th Re,<r.]. Co. I : Josiah G. Sawyer, Jan. 1, 1864; 
July 12, 1865 [see 21st Reg.]. 

Fifty-seventh Regiment. 

Co. A : Martin Maher, Jan. 4, 1864 ; July -30, 1865. Asa 
M. Ray, Jan. 4, 1864; July 30, 1865. John Tulley, Jan. 4, 
1864; d. of wounds, May 18, 1865, at Alexandria, Va. Co. 
B: Eugene Smith, musician, Jan. 4, 1864; July 30, 1865. 
Daniel V. Adams, Jan. 4, 1864 ; July 30, 1865. Loring J. 
Adams, Jan. 4, 1864; Nov. 2, 1864, disahility. Elenry C. 
Hayden, Jan. 4, 1864; d. of wounds received June 17, before 
Petersburg, July 4, 1864, at Annapolis. Amos P. Newton, 
Jan. -5, I8»;4; k. May 27, 1864, at North Anna river. 
Antonio Philip, Jan. 4, 1864; d. Sept. 3, 1864, at Anderson- 
ville [see 15th and 51st Regs.]. William Robbius, Jan. 11, 
1864 ; k. at Wilderness, May 6, 1864. Josiah Sawyer, se. 44, 
Jan. 4, 1864, rejected. Edwin H. Smith, Jan. 4, 1864 ; trans, 
to V. R. C Co. D: Maurice Welch, musician, Jan. 25, 
1864; July 30, 1865. James Cowden, Jan. 25, 1864; July 
13, 186-1, disabihty. Edwin Cudworth, Jan. 25, 1864; k. 
Marcli 25, 1865, at Fort Stedman, near Petersbui-g. Co. 11 : 
Joshua Evans, Jan. 11, 1864; May 12, 1866. William H. 
Rice, Jan. 11, 1864; May 12, 1865. 

Sixty-fifth Regiment. 
Co. (t: Mowry J. Gibson, March 15, 1865; July 12, 1865. 



TJic Civil War. 421 

First Regimient Cavalry. 

^ Co. : Francis G. Elliot, Jr., Sept. 17, 1861 ; May 4, 1862, 
disabilitj. 

Second Regiment Cavalry. 
Co. A: Joseph Spring, March 20, 1865; July 20, 1865. 
Co. B: Horace A. Pope, March 16, 1865; July 12, 1865. 
Co. F: Fred F. Johnson, March 15, 1865; July 20, 1865; 
d. Dec. 4, 1870, at Oxford. Co. G : Georoe Ben way, March 
20, 1865; July 20, 1865. George Doubleday, March 10, 
1865 ; July 20, 1865. Co. K : James G. Forrest, March 20,' 
1865; July 20, 1865. James Mahoney, Jan. 26, 1863; Nov. 
6, 1863, disability [lost an arm; see 15th Reg.]. Co. M: 
George H. Baker, March 20, 1865 ; July 20, 1865. Unassigned, 
William A. Campbell, March 16, 1865; May 16, 1865 Tsee 
51st Reg.]. 

Fourth Regiment Cavalry. 
Co. E: Ehsha C. Taft, corp., Jan. 27, 1864; Nov. 14, 
1865; d. Feb. 26, 1869, at Oxford. Co. F: William d! 
White, serg., March 1, 1864; Nov. 14, 1865. William Kibbe, 
March ], 1864; Nov. 14, 1865. Austin W. Martin [see 51st 
Reg.], Jan. 27, 1864; Nov. 14, 1865; d. Jan. 21, 1884. John 
Munroe, Aug. 9, 1864; Nov. 14, 1865. Thomas Murphy, 
Sept. 3, 1864; May 22, 1865. Co. G: Vernon Chaffee, for 
Webster, Jan. 27, 1864 ; May 28, 1866. 

Second Regiment Heavy Artillery. 
Thomas D. Kimball [see 51st Reg.], capt., Sept. 18, 1863 ; 
Sept. 3, 1865; major, Sept. 18, 1865. Co. A: Charles H. 
Burleigh [see 51st Reg.], 1st serg., Aug. 4, 1863 ; Sept. 3, 
1865. Co. B: John Grady [see 51st Reg.], corp., July 28, 
1863; Sept. 3, 1865. Co. D: Patrick O'Dwyer, Sept. 2, 
1864; trans. Feb. 9, 1865, to 17tii Reg Charles O. Taft 



422 The Records of Oxford. 

[see 51st Reg.], Aug. 22, 1863; Sept. 8, 1865. William 
Wiggin, Aug. 22, 1863; Sept. 3, 1865. Co. E: James 
O'Brien, Oct. 5, 1863 ; Sept. 3, 1865. Stephen Eager, Oct. 
8, 1863; d. Nov. 28, 1864, at New Berne. Co. F: Andrew 
Darling, Oct. 8, 1863; Sept. 3, 1865. Co. G : William Biggs, 
Dec. 7, 1863 ; d. July 21, 1864, at Andereouville. William 
H. N. Cady, Dec. 7, 1863 ; d. Nov. 1, 1864, in prison. Patrick 
Hogan, Dec. 7, 1863; d. Aug. 27, 1864, at Andersonville. 
Patrick Holden, Dec. 7, 1863 ; d. Aug. 25, 1864, at Anderson- 
ville. Joseph Piper, Jnly 19, 1864; Sept. 3, 1865. John C. 
Steere, Dec. 7, 1863; rejected. Co. G: Christopher Vicars, 
Dec. 7, 1863; d. Aug. 30, 1864, at Charleston, S. C; prisoner. 
Rufus Vicars, Dec. 7, 1863 ; d. Oct., 1864, at Florence, S. C; 
prisoner. Co. H: George W. Farrington, Aug. 8, 1864; trans. 
Jan. 17, 1865, to 17th Reg. George Hastings, Aug. 6, 1864 ; 
deserted Sept., 1864. Co. K : William S. Forrest [see 51st 
Reg.], Corp., Dec. 22, 1863 ; Sept. 3, 1865 ; d. Nov. 21, 1889, at 
Oxford. David N. Harris, Dec. 22, 1863; Sept. 3, 1865; 
d. Nov. 26, 1887, at Oxford. Daniel Toomey, Dec. 22, 1863; 
June 1, 1865 ; d. Jan. 4, 1882, at Oxford. Albert W. Bland- 
ing, Dec. 22, 1863 ; Sept. 3, 1865. Unassigned, Samuel P. 
Jones, Sept. 13, 1864 ; Oct. 21, 1864, disability. James Mil- 
ford, Aug. 6, 1864. William Daniels, not in service. 

Third Heavy Artillery. 
Co. C : Patrick O'Day, Aug. 14, 1863 ; deserted May 1, 
1864. 

First Battalion^ Heavy Artillery. 
Co. C: Lowell A. Beckwith, Nov. 28, 1864; Oct. 20, 
1865. Co. D: Lewis Seymour, June 6, 1863; deserted Oct, 
20, 1863. 

Tenth Battery., Light Artillery. 
Algernon P. Follett, Sept. 5, 1864; June 9, 1865. 



The Civil War. 423 

Third Battalion, Riflemen. 
Co. B : Sereno Newton, May 19, 1861 ; Aug. 3, 1861. 

Forty -second Regiinent (100 days). 
Co E: Vernon T. Wetlierell, July 22, 1864; Nov. 11, 
1864. Co. G: William S. Hard, July 21, 1864; Nov. 11, 
1864. 

Nineteenth ( Unattached Co.) Infantry. 
William S. Hurd, Nov. 25, 1864 ; June 27, 1865. 

Veteran Reserve Corj)s. 
Elix Bulley, Sept. 5, 1864; Nov. 17, 1865. Samuel 
Meeker. (?) 

Regular Artny. 
David Barton, Nov. 26, 1862; asst. q. m., rank of captain, 
at Hilton Head, S. C, until resignation on account of ill 
health, 1864. Samuel R. Barton, Dec. 4, 1862 ; May 3, 1865 ; 
hospital steward at Washington, D. C. 

The following from Oxford are given as in Massachusetts 
regiments, but we do not find them on the Adjutant-General's 
Report. 

Th irty -sixth Regim ent. 
Welcome Miller. 

Fifty-seventh Regiment. 

Peter Lamont, disc. Joseph Peake, deserted. 

William A. Emerson has served in 51st Keg. and was disc; 
was drafted from Oxford in 1864, and served from Aug. to 
Dec, 1864 ; unassigned. 

George Tiffany, substitute for Braman F. Sibley, served 
nine months at Boston Harbor. 

Dr. Charles W. Lynn enlisted in Co. H, 25th Reg., Sept., 
1861 [credited to Thompson] ; served IS mouths in the ranks, 



424 The Rerords of Oxford. 

and was detailed to hospital service, coiitinuiug until his disc, 
Oct., 1864. 

First R. 1. Cavalry Regiment. 
Michael Mullen, Dec. 14, 1801; Nov. 15, 1864. Patrick 
Mullen, Dec. 14, 1801 ; Aug. 3, 1865. Sauiuel C. Willis, Jr., 
Dec. 16, 1861; Aug. 3, 1865; qnar. mas. serg. of Co. G, 
May 10, 1862; reg. com. serg., May 18, 1864; lirst heut. 
and commander, Co. F, Nov. 1, 1864. George F. Cnnimings, 
Dec. 14, 1861; Aug. 3, 1865; corp. [given as "Frank 
Cummings" in Town Rep.]; serg.. May 1, 1865; credited to 
Auburn. Nathaniel Smith Emerson, served in this reg.; 
Nov. 14, 1861 ; July, 1862; credited to Worcester. He later 
went as officer's servant to New Orleans, where he died. Jacob 
H. Pickett is given as of this reg. in Town Rep.; his name is 
not on the official list. 

[^- ..7"; Seventh R. I. Regiment. 

Co. I: Emory Humes, x\ug. 4, 1862; June 0, 1865. 

Second N. H. Regiment. 
*"^Co. H; John A. Elliot, May 21, 1861; deserted June 10, 
1863. 

Eleventh Conn. Regiment, 
Co. B: William -W. Schotield, Sept., 1861; wounded 
March 14, 1862, at New Berne; disc, for dis. Feb., 1864. 

Sixteenth Conn. Regiment. 
George R. Kimball, serg., July 29, 1862; July, 1865. 

Fourth Vermont Regiment. 
Co. I: George H. Amidon, Aug. 21, 1861; July 13, 1865; 
sec. lieut., Jan. 19, 1862; first lieut., Co. G, July 19, 
1862; capt. Co. E, Sept. 23, 1862; brevet major, June 9, 



TJie Civil War. 425 

1865; wounded May 5, 1864, at Wilderness, and Oct. 19, 
1864, at Cedar Creek; left the service an invalid; d. Jan. 4, 
1871, at Oxford. 

First Vermont Cavalry. 
Co. C : P. Merrick Moffitt, Sept. 20, 1861 ; wounded Sept. 
20, 1863, at Grove Church, Va.; re-enlisted Dec. 28, 1863; 
disc. Aug. 9, 1865. 

Twenty-foibrth Wisconsin Volunteers. 
Co. B: Albert G. Underwood, Ang-., 1S62; June, 1865; 
clerk under Howard, Rosecrans and Sheridan ; d. Dec 22 
1882, in Florida. 

Ttoenty-sixtlh N. Y. Regiment [U. S. C. T.]. 
Co. B: John R. Smith, Dec. 28, 1863; Aug. 28, 1865. 

XJ. 8. Navy. 
Benjamin Dyer, Jr., was acting volunteer lieut. on store- 
ship Fredonia, at Arica, Peru, Aug. 13, 1S68, the vessel being 
in the harbor. An eartliquake destroyed the town and a tidal 
wave following wre<'.ked the vessel. She sunk with all on 
board, inchicling Dyer and his wife. 

George Whitley, substitute for Benjamin W. Childs, served 
from Dec. 7, 1864, to the close of the war. 

U. S. Engineers. 
Howard Carson. Leander A. Poor. 

54 



426 The Records of Uxjorci. 

The Civil War. 
Chronological Review. 
" Lincoln became president in 1861. He entered upon a sec- 
ond terra in 1865, but, April 14, was assassinated, and Vice- 
President Johnson succeeded to the presidency. 

"During these administrations the most formidable rebellion 
known to history was subdued, and slavery in the United 
States was abolished by an amendment of the Constitution. 

1861. 

"The Rebels attacked Fort Sumter, and compelled Major 
Anderson to evacuate it, April 14. The president called for 
troops. Jefferson Davis offered to commission privateers, and 
a blockade of the sontheru ports was established. Four more 
slave States joined the Confederacy. 

" The Federals, in Virginia, wore disastrously defeated at Bull 
Run (July 21), and in the autumn at Ball's Bluff. In West 
Virgina, General McClellan, in July, gained victories over the 
Confederates at Rich Mountain and Carriok's Ford, and before 
the end of the year that region was nearly cleared of armed 
Confederates. 

" In Kentucky, the Confederates, in September, seized and 
fortified Columbus, and the Union troops, under General 
Grant, then occupied Paducah. 

" In Missouri, Lyon captured a camp of disloyalists near St. 
Louis, in May, but lost the hard-fought battle of Wilson's Creek 
(August 10). 

" On the Atlantic coast the Federals captured the Confed- 
erate works at Hatteras Inlet (August 29), and those at Port 
Royal Entrance, November 7. 

Mason and Slidell were taken from the British steamer 
Trent. 



T]ie Civil War. 427 

1862. 

" Tlie Federal goveriiment prohibited slavery in the territo- 
ries, abolished it in the District of Columbia, and authorized the 
enlistment of colored troops. 

" In the West, east of the Mississippi, the Federals gained a 
victory at Mill Spring (January 19) ; captured Fort Henry and 
Fort Donelson, and occupied Nashville; were victorious, under 
General Grant, at Shiloh (April 6 and 7), an(3, under General 
Halleck, compelled the enemy to evacuate Corinth (May 29). 
In autumn, the Federals, under General Rosecrans, defeated 
the enemy at luka, and at Corinth. The Confederates fell 
back after the battle of Perryville (October 8), and at Mur- 
freesboro' they were beaten by General Rosecrans in a three 
days' battle, which began December 31. 

" West of the Mississippi, a Union victory was won at Pea- 
Ridge (March 7 and 8), and nine months afterward, another 
at Prairie Grove. 

The Confederate posts on the Mississippi, as far as Vicksburg, 
successively yielded to the Federals, and Admiral Farragut 
opened the river from its mouth to TSTew Orleans (April 25), of 
which city General Butler took military possession. 

" On the Atlantic coast General Burnside and Commodore 
Goldsborough captured Roanoke Island, and before tiie end of 
April nearly the whole coast of JN^orth Carolina was at the mercy 
of the Federals, who also had reduced Fort Pulaski, The Con- 
federate ram Merrimack after a day's havoc among the Union 
vessels in Hampton Roads (March 8), was driven back to Nor- 
folk by the Monitor. 

" In Virginia, the Army of the Potomac, under McClellan, 
compelled the Confederates to evacuate Yorktown, beat them at 
Williamsburg, repulsed them near Fair Oaks and Seven Pines 
(May 31). Meanwhile Stonewall Jackson drove the Federals 
from the Shenandoah Yalley, and then joined General Lee be- 
fore Richmond. Lee then, in a seven days' campaign of almost 



428 TJie Records of Oxford. 

constant fighting, raised the siege of the Confederate capital, 
pursuing McClellan to the Jame.-;. where tlie latter repulsed the 
Confederates, with great loss, at Malvern Hill (July 1). The 
Confederates next moved against the Army of Virginia, com- 
mafid'.'d by General Pope, and, after a series of conflicts, be- 
ginning at Cedar Mountain and ending at Chantilly (Septem- 
ber 1), compelled Pope to fall back within the defences of 
Washington. Lee next invaded Maryland. McClellan gained 
a victory over him at South Mountain, and by the great battle 
of Antietam (Septem!)er 17) forced the Confederates, who had 
meanwhile captured Harper's Ferry, back to Virginia. Burn- 
side superseded McClellan, and was badly defeated, at Fred- 
ericksburg (December 13). 

" During the summer the Sioux War broke out. It was sup- 
pressed the next year. 

1863. 

" President Lincoln signalized the opening of the year war by 
issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. 

" In Virginia, General Hooker superseded Buruside, and was 
severely beaten at Chancellorsville (May 2, 3) by Lee, who soon 
after set out for a second invasion of the loyal States. General 
Meade superseded Hooker, beat Lee in the great and decisive 
battle of Gettysburg (July 1, 2, 3), and pursued him into Vir- 
ginia. 

" Vicksburg was surrendered to General Grant (July 4), and 
a few days later Port Hudson to General Banks. 

" The Federals, under Rosecrans, were defeated at the Chiek- 
amauga (September 19 and 20), and besieged in Chattanooga. 
The siege was raised, and the enemy thoroughly defeated bj 
Grant, in a three days' battle, beginning November 23. Soon 
after the Confederates were repulsed before Knoxville by 
Buruside. 



77^1? Civil War. 429 

1864. 

" Amona:; tliQ earlier events were the expoditloii to Meridiati, 
the Fort Pillow massacre, the Red River expedition, and a 
Federal defeat at Olustce, Florida. 

" Grant was appointed to the chief command of the Union ar- 
mies, and, crossing the Rapidan with the Army of the Potomac 
(May 4), met the enemy in bloody conflicts in the Wilderness, 
at Spottsylvania, the North Amia, and Cold Harbor. Then 
crossing the James (June 14), joined by Butler from Fortress 
Monroe, he laid siege to Petersburg and Richmond. The Con- 
federates made a third invasion of Maryland. They were soon 
obliired to retreat, but hovered near the Potomac till General 
Sheridan, in a brilliant campaign, ending in the victory of 
Cedar Creek (October 19), closed the war in the Shenandoah 
Valley. 

" In the west, General Sherman made his famous march to the 
sea. Setting out (May 6) from Chattanooga, he fought heavy 
battles, the severest being at liesaca, Dallas, and Kenesaw 
Mountain, and captured Atlanta (September 2) ; then sweeping 
through Georgia to the sea, he carried Fort McAllister by as- 
sault, and took Savannah (December 21). Meanwhile the 
Confederates had been successfully resisted at Franklin, and 
disastrously routed at Nashville (December 15 and IH) by 
General Thomas. 

" In June the notorious privateer Alabama was captured. 
In August Admiral Farragut won a victory in Mobile Bay. 

18G5. 
"Fort Fisher, North Carolina, was captured (January 15). 
Sherman swept northward through South Carolina; drove the 
Confederates from Columbia; compelled thetn to evacuate 
Charleston ; then pressing forward into North Carolina, beat 
them at Averysboro' and at Bentonville, and entered Golds- 
boro' (March 23). 



/ 



2 900"^ 



, I'/i 



[fi> 



